The Writer
by Elana the Enchantress
Summary: Lily is known as the writer at her school. she's totally disconected from the real world. although she has the highest grades her heart lies in the fantasy world. can anyone bring her back down to earth and find all the wonders she has to show the world?
1. that fateful day

-The Writer.-  
  
Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.  
  
-Chapter One-  
  
Sometimes she just wrote to write, never looking at the words just letting them go their own way. She didn't have very many friends at school. To her it was just a place to get an education. If not studying you could find her writing, reading or dreaming, just staring out into space.  
  
Her room was full of fantasy things. She longed to go to these places, to be rid of the world that held her down. It was that fateful day that one person noticed her. The girl who stood out so much but at the same time invisible!

* * *

School had started a week ago but already Lily Evans could be seen studying. She sat at the Gryffindor table but was never seen in the common room. In the middle of first year she had asked Professor Dumbledore for a small room of her own. Lily was one of Dumbledore's favorite, so of course he had everything set up for her.  
  
She could always be seen with a light expression on her face, a pencil behind her ear, and always chewing gum. Even in classes! It was this morning that seemed like just an ordinary one, that the world began to change for certain people.  
  
The first people arrived to no one's surprise that Lily Evans was already there. She was eating some yogurt and writing. She must have been there a while for there was an empty plate next to her and she had already finished the yogurt. She paused in her writing, grabbed a piece of gum, and popped it in her mouth.  
  
Since breakfast at eight and ended at nine by eight thirty the majority of the people were there. The time for mail arrived and everyone got there love from someone or another. Then everyone looked up, breathing stopped, people felt there fear growing inside of them. The only girl who didn't notice was Lily, too absorbed in her writing to notice anything. There was the black owl! The one the Ministry of Magic used to warn people of death. There it flew heading for the person. Suddenly everyone knew who that one person was and couldn't help but stare at her.  
  
The bird landed right In front of Lily. She jumped, not expecting to get mail, she rarely did! She finished her sentence and began to pet the owl. Never once did she notice all eyes on her. She gave the owl some pieces of toast, and held out her hand with some water in it. He took it all with a grateful hoot. She took the letter from his foot but continued to pet it. It climbed on her arm, people began it think it was her owl, but when it took off they saw it had more letters bearing the mark of the Ministry of Magic.  
  
Lily closed her notebook and started to pack up her stuff, and finally grabbed the letter. Ripping it open it was very short, she scanned the whole thing. She paled a bit reread it, but then all color was back again. Muttering a curse, the others watched as the parchment burst into flames.  
  
She looked up surprised too see all eyes one her. A smile broke out on her face though! People began to whisper about her. Most of the people who received a letter like that usually burst into tears, and ran from the great hall. She picked up her stuff calmly, slowly walked to her first class.  
  
Lily had the highest grade in the whole school. The teachers loved her, because she was one of the few who dedicated to her work. When Lily arrived to her class a little bit earlier than usual they didn't notice. She took out her homework then her notebook and continued to write whatever she was working on at the moment.  
  
Slowly the time for to class begin came. People filed in, talking to friends, or something like that, not one single person didn't glance at Lily though. Professor Millie, it was her first name she hated her last name, pulled a student outside.  
  
"James why is everyone staring at Lily?" she asked staring back at Lily  
  
"Professor you weren't at breakfast?"  
  
"No I wasn't."  
  
"Oh, well she got a black owl from the Ministry!"  
  
"She didn't!" Professor Minnie clapped her hands over her mouth in surprise.  
  
"The weird thing was she didn't explode. She set the letter ablaze, looked up and saw everyone looking at her. She smiled, didn't burst away from the hall, just smiled."  
  
"Oh my! She's only in the sixth year. She has so much promise; I hope this won't present a problem for her."  
  
James just shrugged his shoulders, what could he say? He didn't know Lily Evans. In fact now that he thought about it no one truly knew her. He walked back inside and sat down next to Sirius. Professor Millie followed shortly after him and began the lesson. James watched as Lily answered most of the questions, and went on with her normal routine, as if nothing had happened.  
  
She was a Gryffindor but none of the Gryffindor's saw or knew her. She obviously didn't sleep in the girl's dormitory. Which made him wonder where did she stay? And tore a piece of parchment and wrote on it.  
  
'Hey guys you know how Lily Evans is a Gryffindor but doesn't stay in the Gryffindor tower! Well tonight let's see where she stays.'  
  
He folded the note flicked it at Sirius, who read it, the twinkle in his eyes glittering. He wrote something down on it and flicked it at Remus. Remus read it wrote something also and flicked it back at James. James unfolded it and read.  
  
'James bloody good idea! We should have thought of this earlier. Sirius'  
  
'I suppose it won't do any harm. Just don't take anything! Remus'  
  
James refolded the note, stuffed it in his pocket and began to take some real actual notes.

* * *

Dinner was almost over and Sirius was still shoving food do that bottomless pit he called his mouth. James and Remus on the other hand were watching lily out of the corner of their eyes to see when she would leave. Remus saw her close her notebook, and pile her stuff up.  
  
"Hey she's about to leave!" Remus spoke up.  
  
"Remember to get up only after she leaves the great hall okay?" James said.  
  
"Okay." Remus agreed Sirius just nodded his mouth was full at the moment.  
  
Lily stood up with her pile of books and made her way out of the great hall. James didn't want to turn around and stare at her and have her think something was going on so he waited. He heard her footsteps begin to fade and knew it was time. Remus and James casually got up but Sirius didn't.  
  
"Oh honestly!" Remus sighed. He and James grabbed Sirius by the arms and began to drag him out of the great hall.  
  
"No their about to serve dessert! NO!" he screamed.  
  
Many people around him began to laugh. Sirius and his food!  
  
"We can go to the kitchens and get dessert later, some on."  
  
"Oh yeah!" he popped up and walked out of the great hall with James and Remus.  
  
They saw Lily step off the last stair and turn right. Quickly and quietly they ran up the stairs. They peered around the corner she had turned and saw her turn left. They followed her some more.  
  
Five minutes passed and she paused at the painting of a beautiful dragon. It was white sitting in a cave with treasure behind it.  
  
"Password?" it hissed out, flames spurting out of its mouth.  
  
"Good evening Robert, the password is Charles Dickens."  
  
She had chosen one of her favorite muggle authors, knowing not many people would know of or heard of him. She stepped into her room and immediately went to take a shower. James, Sirius, and Remus walked up to the dragon.  
  
"Password?" it hissed once more.  
  
"Charles Dickens." They said once more.  
  
It looked at them in disapproval but since they had said the right password he had to let them enter. They stepped in cautiously, but when they heard the shower running they relaxed. That's when they truly noticed their surroundings.  
  
It was so many colors, green, yellow, purple, and blue. Fantasy posters hung everywhere. Some puzzles of muggle things were hanging up on the walls too. She had one large shelf that started at the ceiling and reached the roof. Half of it was covered in fantasy book, the other half was of stuffed animals mostly dragons and frogs and unicorns, mythical creatures. Her comforter on her bed and her sheets were tie-dye. It was the most amazing room they had ever been in.  
  
They were so absorbed in taking in everything that they never heard the shower going off. Lily stood in the doorway to her bathroom wearing a white spaghetti strap shirt saying 'BELIEVE'. She was wearing pajama pants covered in pixies.  
  
"Well!" she finally said.  
  
They jumped and slowly turned to see Lily looking at them. Sirius's jaw dropped, even James was caught off guard. The Lily they saw always wore her uniform one size too big, and always had her hair up in some way. The Lily in front of them was wearing something some what tight and had her hair flowing down her back. She actually looked kind of cute.  
  
"I suppose this means you've found out where I stay. I'll have to change my password too!" she was smiling though.  
  
She stepped forward opened up her arms bowed slightly and said  
  
"Welcome to my lair!"  
  
A/N: hey everyone I hoped you liked the story. Oh and I'll try to update the other chapter to "my invisible life" soon I'm having trouble getting it to sound the way I want to. Well thanx for reading and please review bye's.  
  
Maddie! 


	2. A piece of Lily

-The Writer.-  
Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them.  
Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.  
-Chapter Two-  
  
James, Remus, and Sirius were too stunned to speak. This strange girl who  
is know as 'the writer' at school was what they had least expected. She  
almost seemed like a normal person. Lily walked over to a miniature  
refrigerator. She pulled out four bottles and tossed them at the boys. They  
stared at the bottle, hey weren't butterbeer, so what were they? Lily  
cracked the lid off hers and took a sip. She glanced at the boys and  
noticed hey weren't drinking there, she smiled!  
"Relax it's not poison, although the thought had crossed my mind. It's just  
root-beer, Chill!"  
She rolled her eyes at them. They looked doubtful but never the less took a  
drink. To their relief it was only root-beer. She walked over to a table in  
the corner, they had not noticed earlier. It was covered in photos, books,  
paper, and drawings. For a minute they thought she was going to sit down  
and start writing but she only started to clear it off. She hid them all  
away in a small drawer, and motioned to them that they could sit down. They  
did and looked at Lily. There she was smacking her gum, and drinking root-  
beer! They suddenly felt very self-conscious.  
"So.........what do you want?" she asked.  
"Excuse me?" James asked.  
"Well obviously you want something. I mean no one talks to Lily 'The  
Writer' Evans unless they need something. What do you need like tutoring or  
something?"  
"We don't want anything!" Remus spoke up.  
"Oh I get it!" she laughed "Your one of those people who go 'Lily Evans is  
a Gryffindor but doesn't stay in the tower. I wonder where she stays' sort  
of people right." She already knew the answer by their stunned faces.  
"Wow! That's exactly what we said in the note. Are you like a psychic?"  
Sirius asked amazed.  
"No, more like common sense." She saw the confused look upon his face.  
"Something you obviously don't have!"  
James and Remus snorted into their cups and silently laughed. Sirius  
glanced at his friends and knew the remark was an insult.  
"That was an insult wasn't it?" he stared at Lily through narrowed eyes.  
"Yeah that was an insult." She was nodding her head and casting Sirius  
sympathetic glances.  
There was an awkward silence and no one knew what to say. Finally James  
spoke up.  
"So Lily are you okay with this morning?" He looked concerned  
"This morning?" She looked confused at first but then brightened up. "Oh!  
You mean when I spilt that Jell-O on that girls shoe. Wow I have never seen  
someone overreact as much as she did. She told me-"  
"No, Lily I meant about the black owl!" James half expected her to burst  
into tears right there but she didn't.  
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"  
They all looked at her as if she had grown a second head. She was acting so  
calm peaceful. As if the letter had been given to her by mistake, like it  
wasn't hers in the first place.  
""Lily that owl is the one used by the Ministry to tell people that one of  
their family members have dies." Remus was looking shocked at Lily.  
"I know I feel so sorry for anyone who get one. It must be so dreadful to  
them." A sad look crossed her face.  
""Lily you got an owl though! Sirius said.  
"It only said my parents were dead!" Realization dawned on her about what  
they meant. "Oh! You probably think I'm some cold heartless witch only with  
a B instead of a W. I don't like using vulgar langue =, I always though it  
was uncalled for. Sorry I'm getting off the subject. Well you see I don't  
know my parents. I see them I just don't know them.  
She looked at the confused faces staring back at her. She knew she would  
have to explain it to them.  
"My parents are rich, something I both hate and love. I love it because  
there always there financially for me and I can buy a lot of writing  
materials. I hate it because there always on some trip or another. Off in  
another country I maybe see them once a year. My aunt raised me and my  
sister. She was my parents! My parents were never there for me, my aunt was  
and is. It's sort of hard to grieve for someone you hardly know!"  
They understood now and knew that's why it didn't affect her as much as it  
had others.  
"I still grieve for them just not by weeping for them!"  
"Oh I see we were just a little freaked out that you didn't do anything  
this morning only smiled. It freaked everyone out this morning." James  
said.  
Lily smiled for popular guys they were pretty nice. She glances over at her  
dragon clock and saw that curfew was in five minutes.  
"Oh! You better get back curfew is in five minutes. You'd better get back  
before you're missed!"  
"Well fair maiden we hope to speak to you once more.' Sirius said in his  
most elegant voice he had. She just raised her eyebrows at him as if saying  
'are you okay, do you need help?'  
"Well if you don't I'll understand after all no one wants to be seen in the  
presence of 'the writer'!"  
Lily escorted them to the exit. She smiled as she watched them turn the  
corner and head into the common room. She turned to Robert.  
"Let's change the password to.....Lord of the Rings! One of my favorite  
books. Good night Robert."  
"Good night Miss. Evans!"  
Sirius smiled and ran to catch up with his friends. He still knew the  
password and that would come in later use in later chapters. Lily on the  
other hand turned on her fan (magical) and crawled under her covers. With a  
flick of her wrist the lights were turned out and she began to sleep. Taken  
to a world of fantasy once more.

* * *

Lily woke with the dawn, yawning, she stretched .she walked over to the  
window and watched the rest of the sun come into view. It was beautiful.  
Today was Saturday, she usually wore her baggy clothes, even on the weekend  
but today felt different. She walked over to her closet and picked out her  
favorite shirt. It was from Cinderella with Lucifer the cat on it. Below  
Lucifer it had the words 'Bad, Bad, Kitty!'. She picked out a pair of hip  
hugger flare jeans. She topped it all off with some toe socks and some  
flip flops.  
She grabbed a single notebook and walked down to the great hall. As usual  
she found it empty, and walked down to the last seat at the Gryffindor  
table. A plate of her favorite things appeared in front of her as if the  
house elves knew she was there.  
She began writing while eating, the same routine she went through everyday.  
The first people began to enter, and to her shock, and everyone lese who  
was in there, the marauders entered. It was about eight ten, a miracle that  
Sirius wasn't sleep-walking and was actually awake. Lily shrugged her  
shoulders and continued to write.  
Someone in the group must have pointed her out because they began to make  
their way towards her. Remus sat right beside her while Sirius and James  
sat across from her, she continued writing though. Finally Sirius tired of  
being ignored, put his hand in her way. She looked up annoyed then startled  
to see them there. She saw it was Sirius's hand in her way and had a  
thought. James and Remus saw the spark in her eye but didn't have time to  
warn Sirius of it. She slammed the notebook hard on his hand resulting from  
a loud yelp from Sirius. Lily on the other hand just laughed.  
"Serves you right! Never interrupt a person who is working."  
"I'll remember that next time!" Sirius said massaging his hand. She took a  
small piece of toast and pushed away the rest. Sirius immediately took it  
and began to eat. Lily just rolled her eyes ate the bread and popped a  
piece of gum in her mouth. James and Remus found plates in front of them  
and to Sirius's delight his was refilled.  
They began to talk, about anything they could dome up with. As more and  
more people came in she couldn't help notice all the stares she was  
getting. She hated all the attention she was getting, and began to get very  
uncomfortable. James noticed this as did the others.  
"They won't hurt you. I mean sure they can give pretty evil looks, but it's  
not gonna kill you!"  
"I know it's just... I was tutored before I came here. I never had a single  
friend unless you count petunia but she was my sister for Pete sake. I came  
here hoping to find friends but I was very wrong. People looked at me as if  
I was some sort of freak that didn't belong here. That's what my sister  
said to me when she found out I was a witch. That's why I asked Professor  
Dumbledore if I could have a place of my own. I've gotten more attention in  
these last two day than I have in five years!"  
"Well I suppose your going to have to get used to it. You're cool to hang  
out with so you're stuck with us!"  
"Why am I cursed so?" but she laughed none the less!  
Just maybe, maybe life wasn't as bad as she had once thought

* * *

A/N- hey here's the next chapter I hoped you liked it. I got really awesome  
ideas for this one things that will keep you on your toes. So don't forget  
to come back here and read the latest chapters. Thanx a bunch to all my  
reviewers!  
Darkdestiny2000  
Storywritter10791  
Songwithoutwordz  
FreckledIrishMaiden  
Aikenlicious

Bye's  
Maddie!


	3. Defying Gravity

-The Writer.-  
  
Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.  
  
-Chapter Three-  
  
Lily was happier in that last month or two than she had been in a long, long time. She had friends, real friends who were always there for her so far. She was happy!

* * *

Christmas break was in a week. No one could pay attention in the classes. Most couldn't wait to see their parents again. Sirius, Remus, James, and Lily were all going home for the holidays. They talked about getting together at someone's house over the break. They were all hanging out in Lily's room. In fact they spent most of their time in her room now. Lily had, had some old bean-bag chairs in her closet and had pulled them out for them to sit on. They were telling each other jokes and talking about everything and anything!  
  
It was getting late and she sent the boys off. By now the whole school had gotten used to the idea that Lily was hanging out with the marauders. In a way she sort of became one of them. Lily slept soundly that night and woke as usual with the dawn. She went down to breakfast, and a few minutes later entered the marauders.  
  
"You know Lily sometimes your just too much!" Sirius said yawning.  
  
"And why is that?" she asked smiling at him.  
  
"Now instead of sleeping late and sneaking into the kitchens to eat breakfast we wake up early and come eat with you!"  
  
"Well.........oh well!" Lily laughed as Sirius gave her a dirty look that could kill!  
  
The people filed in and waved at the group, who waved back at them. The mail came Sirius, James, and Remus all got mail. To their surprise, and Lily's, Lily also got some mail! It was delivered by a white snowy owl that had small black dots all over it like a Dalmatian! When she opened it she found a letter from her aunt!  
  
Dear Lily,  
I'm sorry it's so short notice, but Petunia is invited to go to Italy with Vernon. I was invited but so were you, I knew you didn't wasn't to go though. Please forgive me but I must go to make sure those two don't do anything! Do you mind staying at Hogwarts this Christmas break? Please send back a reply. If you don't want to go we'll send the presents we got for you on up to you!  
Don't forget I love you,  
Aunt Susan.  
  
Lily looked at it sadly. She wanted to see her Aunt but not bad enough to go to Italy with Petunia! She ripped out some paper from her notebook and wrote a reply.  
  
Dear Aunt Susan,  
Your right I do not wish to go to Italy, thank-you for excusing my presence. I wish I could see you though, but if I must wait till summer break I suppose I must wait! I'll send you all your Christmas presents, they should arrive one or two days after you get this letter.  
Love you lots,  
Lily.  
  
She folded up the reply and looked up to see James with his owl!  
  
"James may I borrow your owl?"  
  
"Sure Lily!"  
  
The bird flew over to Lily and nuzzled up against her as she tied the letter to his leg. She gave him a bit of toast, told him where to deliver the note, and watched him sail off with a sad look upon her face.  
  
"Lily, what's wrong? You look kind of sad!"  
  
"Nothing Remus, there's just been a change of plans. It looks like I'll be staying here this holiday break!"  
  
"Why what happened?" James asked.  
  
"My sister and her soon to be husband are going to Italy over the Christmas break. Well I dislike Vernon and his parents. Although I love my sister, she does not return the feeling! I would be miserable. My aunt would be the only person I really like and talk to!"  
  
"Well we could stay over the breaks too!" Sirius offered.  
  
"No! Go visit you parents. You won't see them until summer break. I'm fine. I can handle three weeks of being alone!"  
  
"Are you sure?" James asked.  
  
"I'm positive!" she smiled and they decided not to argue.  
  
They walked to their next class Lily in the middle all of them laughing. They sat at the very last row. James and Sirius started a paper- football war, Remus worked on some homework form other classes, Lily sat there and daydreaming, chewing her gum. They were quite a site to see!  
  
Class started, they were in potions at the time. The teacher was very, very nice. She used to be a Ravenclaw when she went to Hogwarts. When told to partner up Lily and Remus were together, while James and Sirius were together. Remus and Lily moved as far away as they could from those two, knowing their history in potions! Sure enough in the middle of the class a loud bang could be heard. Pieces of potion went flying everywhere, everyone ducked, Lily though got some in her hair.  
  
"Lily you hair" Said Sirius when they could all see!  
  
She grabbed a piece of her hair and saw that it had green streaks in it. She just shrugged her shoulders but then stopped as he got a look at James and Sirius! Their skin was constantly changing colors there hair too! Nobody said a word at first too stunned too! Then Lily began to laugh, she couldn't stop herself. People looked at Lily then back at the two boys and also began to laugh.  
  
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black did you add the feathers before the smashed eggs?"  
  
They looked down to see an empty bottle of eggs and an unopened bottle of feathers. They grinned!  
  
"That would be a negative ma'am!" Sirius spoke up grinning like an idiot.  
  
"I thought so! Off to the nurse with you, that poor lady I feel sorry for her, having to put up with you two!"  
  
Sirius and James saluted, then walked off to the nurse's office laughing all the way there. Lily and Remus on the other hand just shook their head and continued on with their potion project.

* * *

The day for the train to leave came all too quickly. Most of the teachers came out to see the students off. Five other students were staying behind along with Lily. She walked down with James and the others.  
  
"Now don't you dare forget to write, or I won't talk to you when you get back. Understood?"  
  
They laughed "Understood!" they said in unison.  
  
"Awww Lily I'm gonna miss you" Sirius said in a fake cry voice. He ran up to Lily and engulfed her in a bone-crushing hug.  
  
"SIRIUS, I CAN'T BREATH!!" screamed Lily. He grinned big but let Lily go. Remus came up and hugged Lily after that.  
  
"Don't worry Lils you'll see us sooner than you think!"  
  
"Thanks Remus!" James now came up and gave her a hug.  
  
"See you soon Lils"  
  
They entered the carriage and hung out the window to wave. She waved back, kept waving until they could no longer see her.  
  
"Good-bye." She whispered to the wind.  
  
She entered the castle with the teachers. Lunch would be in a few minutes so Professor Dumbledore motioned everyone to come in the great hall. Lily wasn't hungry though, so she made her way to her room.  
  
"Miss Evans you're not hungry?"  
  
She turned around to see Professor Dumbledore, and Professor McGonagall at the bottom of the steps.  
  
"No Professor's I'm not. Thank-you though." She smiled and continued her way to her room.  
  
"A strange on that Miss Evans, she smiles through the good and the bad!" Professor McGonagall observed.  
  
"Yes she is truly one of a kind. I am glad she has finally made friends!" Professor Dumbledore added. They then walked back into the great hall for some lunch.  
  
As they walked into the great hall three boys entered the castle.

* * *

Lily entered her room to find everything as it had been left. Although it was bright and snowing outside, inside it was dark. Lily had told no one that she could wandless magic at school. She knew that they just wouldn't understand, and probably judge her.  
  
She snapped her fingers and all the candles she owned in her room came ablaze. She sat in her bean-bag chair and didn't know what to do. She had finished her book and her notebook was nowhere to be found, she was just pure bored. She gazed at all her candles and with a point at them they began to float up to the ceiling. She twirled her fingers and the candles began to spin around.  
  
Then concentrating really hard she felt her body float off of the bean-bag chair. She found out that when she was eight if she concentrated hard enough she could fly and float. She could defy gravity!  
  
Out of nowhere music began to play. Sad depressing songs, the one you danced with a partner, the ones that touched your heart. She began to dance in midair twirling, with the candles floating around her. If anyone had peered in that room or window they would have seen a young girl floating and dancing in the middle of the air, to music with candles floating all around her.  
  
Little did she know that there was James, Sirius, and Remus standing there and watching the young girl!  
  
"Lily!" Remus said quietly.  
  
Lily's eyes snapped open and then widened in horror. The music that had been playing earlier now stopped abruptly. She looked to see three boys standing there watching her in amazement. Slowly she and the lighted candles drifted back down to the ground.  
  
"What are you doing back so early?"

* * *

A/N- Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! A cliffhanger! Anyways here's the newest chapter you wanted. I know the flying part is a little far-fetched but hey why not I though it was a good idea! Well anyways thanx to all my reviewers.  
  
Lily-Evans3001  
  
Bye's  
Maddie! 


	4. a part of her past

-The Writer.-  
  
Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.  
  
-Chapter Four-  
  
"Why are you back so early?"  
  
Never had they seen Lily look so small. She was frightened you could see it in her eyes. So long had she kept that secret only her secret. Now she could hide no more.  
  
"Lily......" Remus began to speak but stopped as he saw her wince and look down. They saw her tremble and watched silent tears fall slowly down her cheeks.  
  
"Lily we would never hurt or reject you." James said. When she did not reply they didn't know what else to do.  
  
"Lily......look at us!" Remus spoke softly and calmly. Lily slowly raised her head and looked at them. Her eyes were almost too much to bear to look like.  
  
Sirius advanced towards her slowly, but she didn't make a move. He came up next to her and gave her a hug. She sobbed, hard and let her tears fall. I suppose she was crying for everything she hadn't cried over. The others came around her and hugged her too. After a good ten minutes she had no more tears left to shed. They continued to hug and comfort her though, for which she was glad. They were too busy comforting her to remember why they made her cry in the beginning. Finally though, the moment of truth came.  
  
"Lily how were you dancing in midair? I didn't know there was spell that could do that." Remus asked.  
  
Lily suddenly realized that they thought she had some sort of spell to make her fly. She thought of lying to them, tell them it was a spell and not wandless magic, but thought better of it. They were her friends they deserved to know the truth.  
  
"I-It's not a spell!" she said quietly. She didn't look into their eyes.  
  
"Not a spell then how did you do it?" James spoke up.  
  
"I-I can do wandless magic. I can lift things with enough concentration. I've been able to do it since I was eight years old."  
  
"Wandless magic, that's amazing Lily, but why didn't you tell us?" Sirius asked.  
  
"I don't know I've never told a single person only my Aunt and my sister Petunia know."  
  
Lily got up and walked over to her window, and watched the snow fall. She remembered that day perfectly.  
  
"It was spring a week past my birthday." The boys watched her tell them what she had told no one else before. "Back then I was constantly angry. In all my fantasy books there was always something that could fly. Peter Pan, Dragons, Pixies, Angels, even bird. I envied every single one of them. For one reason only, they could fly, and I could not. I hated gravity, it was the enemy and no matter how I attacked it, I could never defeat it. Sure there were air planes it just wasn't the same though!  
  
"When I blew my candles out on my birthday cake I only had one wish. That wish was to fly! It never came true though. So a week after my birthday I went to my room's balcony. I lived on the top floor, the second floor. I climbed on the roof and just stood there. A maid working outside saw me and screamed bloody murder. She ran into the house and got my aunt and my sister! I have never seen my aunt so pissed off and scared. She kept screaming at me to get my butt back in that house now! Of course those weren't all the words she used. I ignored them of course; I was very stubborn back then!  
  
"I kept staring out in front of me. How the world seemed to go on forever. I then stared at the clouds and felt peace, as if I couldn't fail! My aunt kept screaming at me sensing that I was going to jump soon. I looked down and just smiled at her. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Then I jumped!"  
  
Lily paused and turned back to the marauders. They were listening to with rapt attention. She smiled, looked back at the snow, and continued her tale.  
  
"I knew I was falling not flying. I heard my aunt and my sister scream down below me. My aunt started to sob hysterically. I knew the ground would be coming soon. I kept thinking if I die at least I'll die almost flying! This wonderful sensation came over me, it was all tingly feeling. I waited for the ground to come but what surprised me was that it never came. I opened my eyes and saw that I was floating ten feet above the ground. I was flying the most wonderful experience I had ever felt. I knew that after that day nothing could hold me down. I could do anything I wanted to, after all I defied gravity!"  
  
She let out a sigh, as if she had let go of some troublesome burden. She saw Remus and Sirius began to speak but she raised a hand signaling for them to stop. She wasn't finished yet. While telling her story she knew that she wanted them to experience what she had experienced. She closed her eyes and went rigid. Remus, Sirius, and James watched as Lily seemed to glow with a strange beautiful light. To their shock, surprise, and amazement, they felt themselves slowly drift off the ground.  
  
It was the most wonderful thing they had ever felt. They touched the ceiling and saw their bodies hanging many feet above the ground. They began to slowly, ever so slowly move around the room. Altho0ugh they were amazed they were also very, very frightened. It wasn't that they didn't trust lily though. Perhaps after five minutes they slowly began to drift back to the ground.  
  
"Wow, this is amazing. The most wonderful feeling I've ever felt!" Sirius said in an awed voice.  
  
"Yes truly amazing! If people knew Lily was capable of such things imagine what they would do to her! No wonder she kept it a secret." Remus added.  
  
"She's got to be strong! I mean there's a difference between her self and three guys. Anyone who did this must have a lot of strength." James added too.  
  
They slowly tapped the ground with their feet. They all glanced at Lily. The light that had been around her earlier was now dying until it was all gone. Slowly they opened her eyes and smiled that knowing smile she always had.  
  
"Come on you guys lets go on down and eat something! I'm starving!" Sirius said followed by a loud grumble.  
  
Everyone laughed and agreed. No one noticed that Lily was looking a lot paler than usual. She followed the boys out of the room and down the hall way. The boys made their way down the stairs they noticed Lily wasn't following them. She had stopped a few meet from the top of the stairs.  
  
They walked to the top of the stairs and motioned for her to come and join them. They called out her name but didn't acknowledge them. Her eyes seemed glossy, her body swaying as if pulled by the wing.  
  
James, Sirius, and Remus watched in horror, as if in slow motion, Lily beginning to fall backwards. She was falling and they were powerless to stop her!

* * *

A/H- hey here's the next chapter. Hope you liked it. I won't be updating again till Monday because of the holiday weekend. Thanx to all my reviewers.  
  
Cat  
  
Vickiicky  
  
Ihateluv  
  
Mondo  
  
FreckledIrishMaiden  
  
Storywritter10791  
  
Happy Fourth of July!  
Maddie! 


	5. christmas break

-The Writer.-  
  
Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.  
  
-Chapter Five-  
  
James, Sirius, and Remus found themselves in the hospital wing the next day. Lily was sleeping, having not woken up from her collapse yesterday. Madame Anne the nurse made sure Lily was comfortable, even though she was asleep. When they had brought her in she was in a state of panic, it turns out that many potions had gone missing and Lily needed one that was missing. When the marauders asked what was wrong with Lily she had told them that it was exhaustion, she over-exerted herself on something. The boys looked at each other guiltily. They knew why she had passed out.  
  
Sirius and Remus had gone to the kitchens to get food for all of them, leaving James to watch out for Lily. He was so concerned. If she hadn't made them fly then they wouldn't be in this mess. He couldn't help but think it was his fault. Christmas was in five days, they had already gotten her, her presents. He knew she was going to love them, he just hoped that she would be awake to get them. Her color had returned back to her face. Earlier on in the day she had begun to smile in her sleep. Madame Anne said that, that was a good sign. He gripped Lily's hand, squeezed it tight, and whispered to her.  
  
"Lily come on, you've just got to snap out of it! Please Lily we all need you. You've become so close to all of, we miss you."  
  
Lily turned around and mumbled something. James was too shocked to speak.  
  
"Lily?"  
  
"Go away! I'm not ready to get up. I'm seriously thinking of changing my password and not telling you guys." She said lazily and slowly opened up her eyes.  
  
The first thing she noticed was white. Everywhere she looked she saw white. She definitely knew she wasn't in her room anymore. She saw James with a giddy look on his face.  
  
"Lily your awake!" he couldn't help but shout it. Remus and Sirius were right outside the door when James shouted this out though. Sirius burst through the door, dumped his food into the hands of Madame Anne who had come out to see what was going on.  
  
"Lily!" He ran up to her and engulfed in his very common bone crushing hugs. "Now young lady don't you ever do that to me again, understand?" he said backing away from her and wagging his finger at her as if she had done something wrong. She laughed and agreed. Remus also came over and gave her a hug saying he was glad she was awake too.  
  
Madame Anne came over and began to stutter. When they turned to look at her it took all their strength not to burst out laughing. Her face was all red and purple from fury. Her robes and arms were covered in food. She was so angry she couldn't even talk. Sirius let out a small chuckle he couldn't stifle, pushing her over the edge. She dumped all of Sirius's food on the nearest bed, and still too furious to speak pointed to the door. They all took the hint and began to leave. Sirius being the idiot that he was added a comment while he left.  
  
"I love your robes. There so different from the ones people are wearing today." He said with a smile.  
  
Had he been in reach I'm pretty sure she would have grabbed him and tried a few torture moves on him. Lily couldn't help but laugh, which resulted from a look that could kill from Madame Anne. She went and changed robes then came back to examine Lily. She found everything all right with her and sent her off with specific instructions.  
  
"Now don't overexert yourself, make sure you get enough sleep. Don't do anything stressful."  
  
"Okay I understand, thank you Madame Anne."  
  
"You're welcome Lily."  
  
Lily walked out of the hospital wing to find the Marauders asleep. She smiled fondly at them. Sirius was snoring quite loudly. She was surprised she hadn't heard it in the hospital wing. Remus was muttering to himself very quietly, but what he said was very funny. James was a mix; he snored a little, and talked a little in his sleep. She looked over at Sirius and saw that there was something in his pocket. She went over to see hat it was. It was a firework, the spark I her eye said all she was going to do. She slowly took it out of his pocket and set it in the middle of the three boys. She backed a good distance away and muttered a spell under her breath. She pointed her wand at the firework and watched the fuse catch fire. She counted down the time and watched it explode.  
  
James was the first awake when he had felt something wiz past his ear. He saw the firework and saw Lily at the end of the hall laughing. Sirius was the next one awake and stared at the pretty light. His face was a mixture of feelings. He began to search his pockets and found that what he was searching for was right in front of him. Remus then woke up and unlike the other two had the sense enough to get out of this mess. He slipped out quickly, stood next to Lily, and watched the show. Madame Anne, who could no longer ignore the noise, came out only to be greeted by a piece of firework wiz past her. She decided it wasn't worth it and went back inside her office. Finally the firework died out and James and Sirius saw Remus and Lily laughing.  
  
"Remus you were in on this? How could you?" Sirius said in mock outrage.  
  
"No Sirius, I just had the common sense enough to get out of that mess. Something you didn't have enough sense to do." He replied laughing.  
  
"Then Lily............you did this?" James spoke up. "Lily had been putting on her Jacket when she was finished she had finished she replied.  
  
"Why yes, I believe I did." With that said she turned around and ran down the stairs. She ran out the front door and disappeared from view. Sirius followed shouting.  
  
"I WILL GET MY REVENGE!"  
  
Remus and James just shook their heads and ran to catch up with Sirius. When they stepped out of the doors they found themselves being pelted with snow balls. So began the snowball war of the Marauders vs. Lily. The battle lasted for over an hour, and ended with the surrender of the marauders. They were tired and cold, while Lily still had energy to spare. They finished just in time for supper, which Sirius reminded them. So after eating, and waiting for Sirius to finish, they departed to their rooms all of them very tired.

* * *

Christmas Eve was here. The marauders and Lily spent the whole day being lazy. They began another snowball fight, which Remus and Lily sneaked out of while James and Sirius were throwing each other all they had. Lily began making snow angels, while Remus began to build a snowman. Lily finally giving up on the snow angels, because they always messed up, walked over to the lake. The ice was a good few inches thick, and Lily began to think. Remus, who had finished his snowman, came over and stood by her.  
  
"Remus do you want to go ice skating?"  
  
"Well I don't know I don't have any skates."  
  
"Perfect!" she thought back to all the spells she had learned and finally found one that would work.  
  
"Remus sot down." she said while she too sat down. He did as he was told and sat down. He watched as she grabbed his shoes and muttered a spell under her breath, he watched as his and her shoes turned into ice skates.  
  
"Brilliant Lily, I would have never thought of that."  
  
With the help pf each other they got to their feet and slowly made their way to the lake. They began to skate around getting used to the feeling. They were having so much fun they almost didn't see Sirius and James waving at them to come on over. They made their way over to them.  
  
"Where'd you get the ice skates?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Here." Lily offered, and muttered the spell under her breath. James and Sirius watched as their shoes transformed into ice skates. They spent the rest of the day doing things on the ice.  
  
After dinner they all headed up to Lily's room, which had been decorated for the Christmas occasion. They sat in their beanbag chairs and began to talk. Somehow the talk got shifted to quidditch. Lily who wasn't into quidditch as much as the boys grabbed a book and began to read. The hour was close to one before anyone noticed the time. The marauders were surprised that Lily hadn't told them, seeing as how she usually did. They looked over to where Lily had been reading to find her fast asleep with the book still clutched in her arms. They all smiled. James picked her up and placed her in her bed, then covered her with the blankets.  
  
They sat back down in the bean bag chair and continued to talk. Remus was the next to drift off to sleep. James and Sirius knew that they could not lift him just decided to sleep there on the bean bag chairs.

* * *

Lily woke up earlier than usual to find all the boys sleeping in the bean bag chairs. She smiled and crept over to Sirius.  
  
"Sirius look at all that food! It's you favorite restaurant, there holding a free all you can eat." Sirius jumped up at this dazed. He saw Lily trying to stifle giggles. He was about to say something but she put her finger to her lips.  
  
"You wake Remus, I'll get James okay?" she whispered.  
  
An evil grin spread across his face and he agreed. Lily conjured up a pair of very large symbols, Sirius did the same. Wordlessly she counted down. Three, Two, One!  
  
They both clashed there symbols together close to Remus and James's ears. They both woke with a jolt, James muttering a long sentence of cuss words. Lily and Sirius laughed, this was something they would never forget. James, Remus and Sirius found there present next to them for which they were grateful, because they did not want to climb all the way to their room and back.  
  
They decided to open their present's one at a time. Remus got volunteered to go first. He got various things from his parents. James got him a book all about his favorite things, and some of his favorite chocolate. Sirius got him a magical camera, Remus loved to take pictures, he loved photography. Lily got him a small sculpture of a wolf howling to the mo0on. The moon was magical to where it could turn into the sun then back again to the moon.  
  
Sirius had the largest pile of them. A few were from his parents, but most were from admirers. Remus got him a very large package of the newest prank, and joke stuff. James got him a medium sized black dog. It was magical and could hold stuff of a great amount. A perfect hiding place for his joke stuff. Lily got him a book he had never seen in the joke shop. It was called '1001 pranks you've never heard of'. She explained that she had gotten it from America.  
  
James was next. He got a good few from his parents. Sirius got him a book of his favorite quidditch team, some candy and joke stuff. Remus got him a stag that was candy. It was magical to that no matter how much you ate of it, it never got smaller. Lily's present was thick and heavy. He found out that it was a book of all the quidditch players in history. He began to put it aside but stopped.  
  
"Aren't you going to look inside?" she asked.  
  
He looked at her quizzically, but opened it never the less. The first three pages were autographed from almost all the people in this book. He looked at it in amazement, it was the best present he had ever gotten.  
  
"Lily............thank-you!" he felt as if words weren't enough.  
  
It was now Lily's turn. She got a bunch from her aunt, and one from her pen-pal wizard in America. She turned to the last three presents and chose one at random. It was Sirius's. It was a small box, inside was a beautiful silver locket. She opened it and saw on one side her and Remus and on the other side James and Sirius.  
  
"Thank-you Sirius, I'll wear it always." She said while she slipped it on.  
  
She picked Remus's present next. She found four books inside. A trilogy called the war of souls. Book one: Dragons of a Fallen Sun. Book two: Dragons of a Lost Star. Book three: Dragons of a Vanquished Moon. The other book was called Faerie Wars. She looked so happy.  
  
Thank-you! I'll start to read them as soon as possible."  
  
She finally got James's present. Inside was a small holographic egg. She looked at it curiously, and saw a crack begin to form. Slowly the egg bust apart and inside it was a small holographic baby dragon. It was almost like a real thing. You could even touch it!  
  
"Oh James, it's beautiful. I don't know what to say." She looked up at him and smiled. "Thank-you!"  
  
She named the Dragon Ella; it became one of her best friends. There has probably never been a Christmas as happy as that one.

* * *

A/N- hey I hoped you liked that. Oh about the baby dragon it's like a miniature baby dragon, it's not going to grow to be that big just to let you know. Anyways I hoped you enjoyed this chapter, thanx to all my reviewers:  
  
DarkDestiny2000  
  
A person  
  
Storywritter10791  
  
Thanx again  
Maddie! 


	6. a sacred vow

-The Writer.-  
  
Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.  
  
-Chapter Six-  
  
Months passed and they soon found themselves at the end of April. A month and one week until school would be out for summer. The next year would be there last year at Hogwarts, a sort of depressing thought.  
  
Lily was in deep thought, a silent battle raging within her mind. As of lately so many strange things and thoughts had been happening. Lily began to feel things she knew she shouldn't. The thought that it might tear up their friendship was enough to push the thoughts away sometimes. Lily knew she was falling for James!

* * *

May tenth dawned on a bright and sunny day. Lily, having fallen asleep at her desk while studying last night, did not want to get up. It was only when she heard a small snicker did she drag open her eyes. She found herself staring into the faces of James, Sirius, and Remus. She groaned in protest.  
  
"What do you want?" she croaked out.  
  
"We want to tell you something!" Sirius said, practically bouncing up and down. They all had very large smiles on their faces.  
  
"And this couldn't have waited until later?"  
  
"Nope, we wanted to be the first one's to tell you!" Remus said.  
  
"Tell me what?"  
  
The marauders glanced at each other. Out of nowhere music began to play. The boys burst into song, and Lily began to blush.  
  
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Lily.....happy birthday to you!"  
  
Lily was blushing and laughing at the same time. "I don't know what to say." She finally spoke up after she had gained control of herself. The day was perfect for her, one of the happiest days she had ever had.

* * *

It was Friday the 11th a day after her birthday. Tomorrow was a Hogsmeade day for which she was grateful for. She had once again run out of paper, and definitely needed more. It was early on in the morning, and as usual Lily could be seen at the tables. She had finished eating and was chewing a stick of gum. She was reading a thick book. It was a trilogy all put together in one book called 'The Rhapsody Trilogy'. Shortly after entered the Marauders.  
  
8:30 came, the time for mail. Remus, Sirius, and James all got something from their families. It was like Déjà vu, the great hall grew deathly quiet once more. The Marauders and Lily all looked up to a black owl. Everyone was holding their breath but as the bird passed them let it out again. As before the bird began to head towards Lily, and she knew it.  
  
It landed right next to her. She smiled and began to stroke it very gently. She noticed that it was the same owl that had delivered her other letter informing her of her parent's death. Lily pulled out a piece of parchment and jotted down a quick note. Lily folded up the letter and again reached into her bag. She, this time, pulled out a small pouch and nine galleons.  
  
"When you finished delivering all you other letters please take this letter and the pouch to the person who takes care of you please. If her agrees that means you become my owl. Would you like that?"  
  
The owl hooted in agreement saying it liked the idea, and then held out its paw. She tied the letter and pouch to it. She then took the letter that was addressed towards her. She gave the bird some toast and water, then watched it sail away. She tore the letter open and began to read. To be respectful the boys made sure they didn't read it over her shoulder. They instead watched her facial expressions. She paled like the last time only this time she stayed pale. She muttered a spell and lit the paper on fire. She looked up to see everyone looking at her. She smiled at them; they turned away back to their own business not thinking anything seeing as how she had did this the last time. The marauders on the other hand saw that it was a very forced smile.  
  
"I need to get to class!" she said it as if it was a great challenge.  
  
She slowly walked out of the great hall. Where she normally turned left to go to classes Lily headed straight forward and out of the castle. The marauders quickly followed; when they looked around they saw her sitting on a rock next to the lake. They watched as a tear slowly made its way down her cheek. This was serious! Before they had known Lily they never once saw her cry. While they knew Lily they had only seen her cry once!  
  
They slowly approached her. Out of the corner Lily saw movement and faced the boys. They saw the tears falling down her tears and stopped. She turned her head and stared out over the lake.  
  
"She's gone." Her voice was barely louder than a whisper.  
  
"Who's gone Lily?" James asked her quietly.  
  
"My Aunt!" she paused, at the moment unable to go on. "She was crossing the street. A thief, who had stolen some money from a bank, was in a chase with some cops." The Marauders heard her voice began to crack. "He turned the corner fast, going about 100 miles per hour. He didn't see her until it was too late!" she let out a heart wrenching sob. "She was delivering a letter to me and an invitation to my sisters wedding. With the letter from the Ministry of Magic came a note from my sister. She blames me for the death, and says she no longer wants me at the wedding, that she no longer has a sister."  
  
Lily could no longer hold in the sobs. Her shoulders began to shake, and her whole body began to tremble. The Marauders crowded around her and hugged her. They knew that they could do nothing else. They knew that Lily loved her Aunt a lot, but none of them had ever experiencing a loss as she was now. So they were going to do what they knew they could. They were going to be there for her and comfort her when she needed it. Time passed by slowly. Their shirts became a little damp from Lily's tears, and they knew that the first class would soon be over. Finally Lily's tears slowed and she quieted down a little. Although this would scar her and that she would never forget, she just kept in mind the words her aunt had said to her.  
  
'One day I will leave this world and go to a better place. I know you will weep for me, miss me, and never forget me, but only do that! Don't forget to live, to life to the fullest will be honoring me and death.'  
  
She had told Lily these words when she was very little, so naturally she agreed but never thought it would ever happen. Lily slowly got up and walked to the edge of the lake. Clouds had gathered along with some wind. The rain began to fall in a light sprinkle, as if it was honoring her Aunt's death too. Lily cupped her hands together like a bowl and using wandless magic created a small Lily. The marauders watched as Lily knelt down next to the water. She placed the Lily in the water and slowly blew it towards the middle of the lake.  
  
"Rest in peace Aunt Susan." She whispered the words being blown away with the wind.

* * *

Lily decided to skip the rest of classes. With the Marauders as her escorts she made her way to her room. She went to her bed and lay down, not moving an inch. She just stared at the ceiling.  
  
"If you need anything Lily, don't hesitate to come and find us okay?" James said as they began to leave her room.  
  
She turned and smiled at him. "Thank you James!"  
  
Lily laid there a while after they had left. Finally she sat up; she knew what she had to do. She walked over to her dresser. It had a large mirror attached to it. She pulled out a drawer and grabbed a dagger from it. It was a glass one with mythical creatures everywhere on it. Her Aunt had given it to her on her 16th birthday. Lily then looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were all red from crying. Her hair, which reached to the middle of her back, was in disarray. Her face was pale all the color gone from it. Lily carefully set the dagger down and grabbed a brush. She combed her hair until it was straight. With one hand she gripped all of her hair with the other she grabbed the dagger. She closed her eyes and with a swift swing cut off some of her hair. Slowly with every word spoken with venom, she made a vow.  
  
"I swear to avenge my Aunts death. Seeing as how the thief is caught and put into jail I vow to go after Voldemort. That way I can make sure no one has to fell the pain I feel now. I will do all I can to stop Voldemort!"  
  
From that day forward, so that she would never forget her vow, Lily never let her hair grow past her shoulders. No longer than the length it was now!

* * *

A/N- hey I'm soo sorry it took me so long to update this chapter! I'll just clear up some questions.  
  
-When Lily flies, she literally flies like Peter Pan!  
  
-I'm not gonna show anything between James and Lily until a little bit into their 7th year.  
  
-Just so you don't get mad, but Lily's life is going to be a lot happier from this point on no more bad crap happening to her anymore!  
  
Thanx to all of my reviewers!  
  
-sunni07-  
  
-Gotbubbles-  
  
-Storywritter10791-  
  
-Darkdestiney2000-  
  
Hope you enjoyed the chapter!  
Maddie. 


	7. school year end

* * *

-The Writer.-  
  
Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.  
  
-Chapter Seven-  
  
Lily was tormented by dreams that night. She could see her Aunt reaching out towards her. Lily stretched out her hand to grab it but found no matter how hard she tried she couldn't grab it. She watched as she drifted away into darkness!

* * *

Lily woke with a start. It was about half an hour earlier than she usually woke up. She was trembling from her dream. As she passed her mirror, in her way to the bathroom, she noticed her hair. It was going to take a while to get used to it. It came down to right before her shoulders. She toyed with it then proceeded to the bathroom. She picked out a baggy pair of pants, and a t-shirt with a rose in the middle of it. It was the rose from 'Beauty and the Beast' below it said 'All things beautiful must come to an end!'. She thought it would be appropriate. She decided to head towards the great hall even though it was way too early. She opened the painting to see James, Sirius, and Remus about to say the password.  
  
"Hey Lily." James said  
  
"Hello." She gave them as small smile, knowing she couldn't handle a full one.  
  
"How are you feeling?" Remus asked quietly.  
  
"Better than yesterday."  
  
"LILY!" Sirius all but screamed.  
  
"What?" she couldn't help but jump at his outburst.  
  
"What did you do to your hair?"  
  
"I cut it and made a promise." She replied softly. "Come on let's go and eat some breakfast."  
  
Although the boys wanted to know what the promise was they kept their distance. As they were walking down the hallway a thought occurred to Lily. What was she going to do about the summer? She'd die before she went to back to Petunia, even if she did accept her! The thought that she might have to go to an orphanage made her stop in her tracks. The Marauders stopped and looked at her.  
  
"What's wrong Lily?" James asked taking a step towards her.  
  
"Nothing, you guys go on ahead of me. I need to go talk to Professor Dumbledore for a minute."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Yeah, I'll see you guys in a second." She turned around and walked quickly to professor Dumbledore's office. She came to the gargoyle and said the password 'bubble gum' then walked back to the top of the stairs. She knocked softly so as not to wake him if he was asleep.  
  
"Please come in Miss Evans."  
  
Startled that he knew it was her, she slowly made her way in. She looked around and noticed his phoenix Fawkes. Apparently it had just been reborn a few days ago and was in a baby form. 'It was so cute' thought Lily.  
  
"Is there anything I can do for you Miss Evans?"  
  
"Well you see professor my Aunt.........she died yesterday. I-I don't have anywhere to go. I was hoping I could stay here over they summer?"  
  
"I'm sorry to hear about our Aunt Miss Evans but I'm afraid you won't be able to stay here over the summer. The castle is uninhabited over the summer. The very last week before the school is opened we, the teachers, come back and prepare. Perhaps I could fix something up with the Potter's for you."  
  
"I don't want to be a bother for them though."  
  
"I assure you, that you won't be a problem. I'll owl them to make sure."  
  
Lily knew she couldn't argue so she just nodded her head. "Thank-you professor."  
  
"No problem Miss Evans."  
  
Lily walked back down to the Great Hall. She wasn't feeling very hungry at the moment though. She sat down next to James, and knowing that he would force her to eat, began to eat a bit of toast. The mail came and like the day before the crowd quieted. The black owl that was here yesterday was back. It landed next to Lily, and for the first time in the last two days she smiled. She grabbed the letter on its' foot and ripped it open. While she read it her smile grew larger.  
  
_ Dear Miss Evans,  
We accept your offer for the black owl. Please make sure you give it a nice home.  
Sincerely,  
The Ministry of Magic._  
  
She folded the letter and handed it to James. While he and the other Marauders were reading it she bean to pet the owl.  
  
"I suppose you are going to need a name." it hooted in agreement. "Alright hoot once if you don't like it, Twice if you do. How about Alex? No not that one, then how about Tom? Not that one either. Let's see.....how about Harry?" the bird seemed to think about it then hooted twice.  
  
"Lily you bought the owl?" Sirius sat the shocked.  
  
"It's not 'the owl' it's Harry, and yes I bought him. I never had an owl of my own. Never found one I liked. I liked him though, the poor bird, it probably had a lot of things thrown at him." Harry hooted in agreement.  
  
"I'm glad you smiling. I didn't think you'd recover this fast from the death." James remarked.  
  
"I don't think I'll ever fully recover from it. I just have to remember the words my Aunt gave me."  
  
"What words were those?" Remus questioned.  
  
Lily smiled. "She said 'One day I will leave this world, and go to a better place. I know you will weep for me, miss me, and never forget me, but do only that! Don't forget to live. To live your life to the fullest will truly be honoring me in death.' So you see I have to get on with my life. I'm going to live each day like it's my last day, for my Aunt.  
  
"Your Aunt was very wise!"  
  
"Yes she was." Lily smiled.

* * *

Monday came around, by now everyone was used to Lily and her Black owl. People no longer held their breath when it passed overhead. James's owl came over and dropped a letter next to him then flew over to Lily. All of the Marauders owls loved Lily. So while Lily was taking turns feeding each one James's face had a big smile on it.  
  
"Great News." His outburst caused everyone to jump.  
  
"What's great news?" Sirius's mouth still being full of food, caused him to spray some over everybody. This resulted in a loud 'Ewww! Sick!' from Lily, while Sirius smiled.  
  
"It looks like Lily will be staying over at my house for the summer"  
  
Lily hung her head in embarrassment. "I'm so sorry James. I went to Professor Dumbledore's office to ask if I could stay here over the summer. He said he couldn't but could mail a letter to the Potter's. I don't mean to be a burden."  
  
"Lily you're not a burden. This is great because it means we get to see you see you everyday. Sirius practically lives at our house, and Remus always comes over."  
  
"Well........ If you're sure."  
  
"I'm positive"  
  
"That's right Lily, you're always welcomed at the Potters house." Sirius added spraying food everywhere.  
  
"Sirius let me ask you a question. Have you ever heard of the saying 'don't talk with your mouth full'?"  
  
He nodded his head in reply. "Of course I have, I just never listened to it."  
  
Lily gave him a disgusted look then continued giving the owls some food.

* * *

The finals were over, the house cup awarded, and everyone was saying good bye to the castle. The year was at an end and everyone was going home for the summer. Lily and the Marauders waited for the very last coach, in a way not wanting to say goodbye to Hogwarts. They quickly bordered the train and grabbed a compartment. Lily watched as Hogwarts faded from view, feeling a sense of loss.  
  
The train ride back home didn't seem to take as long as it usually did for Lily. Probably because she was laughing through most of it. Before long she found herself staring at platform 9¾ they waited until most of the crowd had gone through and then made their way to the barrier. Lily went first, followed by James, them Remus, and finally Sirius. Remus was the first to see his parents waved goodbye then left, Sirius next. Lily at first began to look for her aunt then remembered she wasn't going to be there. So Lily just stood close to James. Out of nowhere a pair of hands grabbed her from behind and pulled her into a hug, then released her from it. She turned to see a woman with brown, medium, curly, hair with a kind face, and a man with the unmistakable looks and Potter hair.  
  
"You must be Lily Evans; it's such a joy to meet you. James has told me so much about you." Mrs. Potter spoke her voice kind and sweet.  
  
"It's very nice to meet you too. I hope this wasn't any trouble."  
  
"Nonsense you won't be any trouble. If anything you'll be a big help keeping those boys in line."  
  
Lily laughed and smiled. She turned around and looked at James and saw him role his eye.  
  
"Come on, we need to get you to our house, and get you situated." It was Mr. Potter who spoke this time, his voice deep but gentle.  
  
Despite the fact that the Potter's were rich they didn't like to show it. They had a normal car and insisted on driving it. They didn't go in limo's unless the had to. They lived about thirty minutes away from here. Although it wasn't a mansion their house was close to one. It was three stories tall and had a very large yard. There were flowers and Trees everywhere.  
  
"Do you like it?" he whispered into her ear.  
  
"I love it, it beautiful." She turned looked at him, and smiled.  
  
James smiled back and said "that's good!"  
  
As the car cam to a stop in the driveway lily scrambled out. She stood there and just gazed up at the house. It was very beautiful. She went to the open trunk and began to pull out her luggage.  
  
"Oh Lily dear, don't worry about that. Charles will get it. If you ever need anything go to Charles."  
  
"Okay. Thank you." She directed the thank you to Charles who had come up and grabbed the luggage.  
  
"You're welcome Miss." She grabbed the cage Harry was in and let him free. He flew around a bit then landed on her shoulder. On her other shoulder was Ella. She had grown since Christmas, was about halfway through. A teenager if you wanted an age category. She then followed James up to the third floor where there were three doors.  
  
"That ones mine, so if you need anything during the night, just come to that door. That one is Sirius's and the other is Remus's. This one is yours." James swung the door open and watched Lily's reaction. It was just how he imagined it would be. Her mouth opened in surprise, here eyes taking in everything.  
  
The walls were covered in stars. Clouds and moons. There was a large bookshelf of Fantasy books, and below a television, and some movies. Everything was just perfect in her eyes; a large smile was on her face.  
  
"James it's the most beautiful room I've ever seen!"  
  
"My mom used to be a big Fantasy nut like you. She kept all her stuff in this room. When I told her how much you liked Fantasy, she insisted that you stay in this room."  
  
"It's perfect."

* * *

Lily slept soundly in her new bed. She slept late, or what was late in her opinion. It was about nine' o'clock. She slowly opened the door and peered out. Seeing no one she walked down to James's door and peeked in. he was still asleep, muttering under his breath. She smiled at him fondly then went back to her room. She finished the book she had been reading and even got a chance to writer before she noticed what time it was. It was 11:30 she had noticed her room was connected to a bathroom and decided to take a shower. By the time she got in, out and dressed it was noon. She again walked to James's room and found him still asleep. She rolled her eyes and walked over towards him.  
  
"James wake up!" she yelled in his ear.  
  
All that resulted from that though was him rolling over and shoving a pillow over his head. She sighed, now what was she going to do? Then a small little light bulb popped up over her head. She began to smile that evil little smile when she had an idea. She crawled up on the bed and with all her might pushed James off of it. A loud thud could be heard throughout the house.  
  
"Bloody Hell Lily!"  
  
She sat on his bed and just laughed. Laughed until tears came out of her eyes. And so began their summer.

* * *

A/N- hey here's the next chapter, than to all of my reviewers.  
  
-The 100 original blah-  
  
Byes'  
Maddie! 


	8. summer ball

-The Writer.-  
  
Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.  
  
-Chapter Eight-  
  
James over the first two weeks of summer had learned to wake up before noon. If he didn't he would find himself waking up to one of Lily's evil plots. She had some very creative ideas in her head, some that could even match Sirius's ideas. So he had trained himself to wake up at eleven fifty. Ten minutes later he wasn't surprised to hear two loud yells coming from the other rooms. Lily then gave them only till twelve thirty to get dressed.  
  
Mrs. Potter loved having Lily around. Being the only women of the house, with the exception of the two maids, she found it very refreshing to have another woman around. He still laughed at her face when she saw all of them up before two. She kept checking their foreheads making sure they weren't sick or delusional.  
  
Right on time Lily and the boys walked down the stairs. Sirius was throwing murderous glares at Lily, who looked contempt, and satisfied. Of course lunch was then served and Sirius forgot all of his problems. Mrs. Potter still had trouble accepting the fact that, that was the way Sirius ate. Even though he had been coming over since, well forever, she still thought he ate because there was food in front of him, nothing more. She often couldn't watch Sirius eat and often turned her attention to James and Lily. Although they had not even known each other for a year, they acted as if they had known each other for a lifetime. She kept thinking what a cute couple they were, but they weren't at that stage yet. Almost but not yet.  
  
"Let me have you attention real quick please. Now, Sirius I wouldn't tell you unless it was very important but stop eating okay." Sirius looked as if he had been insulted, but never the less stopped eating. "Now your father is holing a very important.......well let's call it a ball, because you have to get dressed up. This ball decides a lot about his job, so I want no funny business." She immediately snapped her attention towards Sirius, who raised his hands in defeat.  
  
"Now Mrs. P. you know for a fact that if it's going to cost him his job I'm not gonna screw it up. Now if it didn't depend on his job of course I'd mess it up, it's in my nature, but not if it's this important. I give you my word I won't do anything."  
  
"Okay, I'll hold you to your word. If you don't I'll tell your mother!"  
  
"That won't be necessary." He replied quickly, to quickly in Lily's point of view.  
  
"Is he scared of his mother?" she asked James.  
  
"I'll tell you later." Lily nodded in response because; Mrs. Potter had begun talking again.  
  
"Now you suits and outfits are in you closets. Oh Lily I picked out the most beautiful dress, I hope it's you size. Anyways, you will need to be there at the minimum of two hours because-"  
  
"Two hours! Mum, that's-"  
  
"I know, I know but you presence is required. After two hours you can sneak back up to you rooms. No Sirius, I want none of you frequent bathroom trips that you have every ten minutes." Sirius gave her a disgruntled look, as if she had read his mind, but consented all the same. "Now I have to run a few errands, but be sure to be ready by six. Six fifteen for you Lily dear."  
  
Mrs. Potter then left the table to go do her errands. Lily said she would be right back and headed towards her room. She went over to her closet and opened it. There inside, hanging up, was the most beautiful dress she had ever seen. For some reason she couldn't wait for tonight.

* * *

The Marauders were dressed and ready to go at five forty five due to Lily. She then went back to her room and got ready herself. When six o' clock came James and the others went down to the entrance hall to greet the guest. Sirius began to yawn uncontrollably; even Remus couldn't help but feel bored. James kept glancing at his watch then looking up at the top of the stairs for Lily. When six fifteen came, James once again looked up for Lily and had his breath token away.  
  
"Wow!" he said quietly in an awed voice. Sirius who was next to him looked up at the direction he was looking, and couldn't help but gape.  
  
There was Lily smiling. She had her hair up in a messy way, but at the same time it still looked perfect. Her bangs were curled and hanging at the side of her face, framing it. She didn't wear make-up just some lip gloss and some silvery eye shadow. She only wore the locket that Sirius had given her, no other jewelry. Then there was her dress. It was a shade between white, and silver, that sparkled in places when she moved. It was spaghetti strapped one, the neck line coming to just below the locket. At the top it hugged her body, showing off her curves until it reached her hips where it puffed out a little. White gloves came with it; they reached to right above her shoulders. She was the most beautiful women James had ever seen. When she reached the bottom James had gotten a hold of himself but Sirius hadn't.  
  
"Wow Lily you look gorgeous. If you weren't one of my best friends I'd ask you out. Heck why let that stop me, Lily would you like to go out with me?"  
  
Lily seemed to consider this but knew the answer. "I'm sorry Sirius; you're just not my type."  
  
"Not your type? What do you mean I'm not you type? Then who is?"  
  
Lily looked at James and Remus both trying to contain there laughter. "I believe James is my type!" James stopped his laughing abruptly but Remus kept on laughing, only harder.  
  
"James! You manipulated her didn't you? What has James got that I don't?"  
  
"Well he doesn't have half the history of women then you do. Also.......there's something about the hair."  
  
Sirius looked taken aback, and then launched into full detail some things about James even Lily didn't even know. James launched into the conversation doing the exact same thing Sirius was doing. Lily and Remus had a hard time containing their laughter. She turned around to Remus and rolled her eyes. He walked up to her and offered his arms.  
  
"Shall we?"  
  
"Yes we shall."  
  
The two walked into the ball room, and found a table in the corner of the room. They watched ant talked about different people's hairdo's and outfits. About ten minutes later James and Sirius walked in, scanning the crowd for them. They finally spotted the two and made their way to them. They talked a while but Lily was beginning to get bored.  
  
"Remus, would you like to dance?"  
  
"I'd love to."  
  
"Don't worry I'll save a dance for you two."  
  
Lily had so much fun that night. It was a night that she was never going to forget. The two hours were almost up as Sirius kept reminding them. He had even taken to calling out how many minutes were left to them. Lily at the time was dancing with James. As the song ended a slow one began. Both hesitated at first then thought, they might as well give it a try. She wrapped her arms around his neck, as he wrapped his around her waist. She felt comfortable, she didn't want the song to end, didn't care if it went on all night long. She was happy. They got a lot of comments on how cute a couple they were, but they didn't hear. They were too wrapped up in each other to care. They went through two more slow dances till Sirius came and dragged them off, telling them it was ten minutes past two hours, and that they could go now. Just as they were about to leave Mrs. Potter came over.  
  
"Now before you go, I want some pictures of you four."  
  
She led them over to the stairs, where Remus sat down on the ground. James and Sirius sat right behind him, then Lily behind them. Lily put her head in-between Sirius and James shoulders. Mrs. Potter insisted on separate ones, so she took a picture of the Marauders only, then one of Lily by herself. She then took one of Lily and Remus, who were sitting on the stairs, laughing in the picture because of Sirius. Next was Sirius and Lily. They were standing up, he had his arms around her shoulders, and Lily had hers around his shoulders. Then there was James and Lily. He took her hands in his and then wrapped them in front of her, on her stomach. He placed his face on her shoulders. Lily seemed to glow in that picture. After a few more, the pictures were finally over, and they were free to leave.  
  
"You guys go on ahead I want to talk to Mrs. Potter for a moment."  
  
"Okay well we'll be in you room."  
  
"Okay." Lily walked over to where Mrs. Potter was standing. "Mrs. Potter, I was wondering if I could have a copy of those."  
  
"Of course, Lily. You certainly bring a lot of energy to this house. I'm glad you're staying with us." She hugged Lily tightly.  
  
"I'm glad too."  
  
Lily walked up to the third floor, then to her room. As soon as she opened the door she was blinded by a bright flash. When her eye sight finally returned to normal she saw Sirius with Remus's Camera.  
  
"What was that for?"  
  
"So I can have a picture of you in that dress. Then later I can fantasize about you."  
  
"How very comforting."

* * *

Hogwarts and their Seventh year were coming closer. Today while eating lunch their owls came in and dropped of their Hogwarts letters. Lily opened her and took out her supply list. She couldn't wait to read some of the new books. Just as she was about to put it away she saw another note appear.  
  
_Dear Miss Evans,  
We are pleased to inform you that you have been made Head Girl this year. We know you will do an outstanding job, and wish you the best of luck this next year.  
Sincerely,  
Professor Dumbledore.  
_  
"Oh my god!" Lily screamed causing everyone to jump.  
  
"What's wrong Lily?" Sirius asked.  
  
Lily by now had stood up and began to dance. "I'm head girl this year."  
  
"Awesome."  
  
"James began to read a note that just appeared in his letter.  
  
_Dear Mr. Potter,  
We are pleased to inform you that you have been made Head Boy. We ask that you do not do quite as many pranks, seeing how we could never stop you from doing them altogether. We wish you the best of luck in your seventh year.  
Sincerely,  
Professor Dumbledore.  
_  
"Now way." His face was a mask of pure astonishment.  
  
Lily stopped dancing, and James stood up still looking at the letter. "What's wrong James?"  
  
"Professor Dumbledore made me head boy!"  
  
Lily ran over and grabbed the note and reread it. She then squealed in delight and hugged James. "This is so awesome."  
  
"No it's not! What about our pranks?" Sirius yelled.  
  
"Well actually Professor Dumbledore said not to do as many pranks, so technically I can still do some."  
  
"Well in that case, you're right Lily this is good news."

* * *

They went to Diagon alley the next week, and after that headed towards the Hogwarts express. They were in for a few surprises in their 7th year.

* * *

A/N- hey thanx for reading this. I'll give you some clues as what to expect in their 7th year.  
-Sirius meets a girl he's really likes and gets into a serious relationship. (No it was not that stupid joke Sirius serious thing.)  
  
-a 7th year only leaving Hogwarts ball.  
  
For those of you who have noticed Peter is not in this Fanfiction. If you don't like that oh well, deal with it. Thanx to all of my reviewers.  
  
-Kara Adar-  
  
-Princess Sara-  
  
-The 100 original Blah-  
  
-Sunni07-  
  
-MonkeyGurl1-  
  
-Tekvah Ariel-  
  
-TigerLily78-  
  
Thanx again  
Maddie. 


	9. a new someone

-The Writer.-  
  
Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.  
  
-Chapter Nine-  
  
Lily and the Marauders ran through the barrier. It was ten fifty, only ten more minutes until they left for Hogwarts on their final adventure. Mrs. Potter came behind them and gave them all big hugs. She waved goodbye until the train winked out of view. Lily and the boys walked compartment to compartment, looking for an empty one. They did this until they came to the last compartment that was almost empty. There was a girl in the corner, curled up in a ball, reading a book. As they slid the door open, she jumped. She hadn't heard anyone coming and looked to the door.  
  
"Sorry to bother, but are you saving these seats for anyone?" Lily asked.  
  
"No, your welcome to sit here." Her voice was quiet, as if she was shy.  
  
"I don't think I've seen you, are you knew?"  
  
"Yeah, my father's job makes us have to travel a lot. I lived in England till I was ten. After that we moved to America, then Australia."  
  
"That's cool, except for the fact that you have to leave your friends. Oh, I feel rude! My name's Lily, that's James, Remus, and Sirius. Ignore Sirius; you'll be better if you do."  
  
"Now Lily that wasn't very nice." Sirius remarked.  
  
"I didn't say I was a nice person, you just assumed. Although I think you should know better considering you spent most of the summer with me."  
  
The girl laughed. "I'm Megan Tomrin, Meg for short."  
  
"Welcome to our group." James and Sirius said with outstretched arms, making Meg laugh again.  
  
The boys got into their own conversation as did the girls.  
  
"What are you reading?"  
  
Meg looked down at her books and smiled. "The Lord of the Rings."  
  
"Oh my gosh, you like that book?"  
  
"Yeah it's my favorite."  
  
"Mine too. Wait I have it. I'm guessing that you're a total Fantasy freak. Your room is probably covered inn Fantasy toys, books, and other weird things."  
  
"That's exactly right. Now I'm guessing that you're the exactly the same way."  
  
"It's the only way to live."  
  
"Very true."  
  
"Most people at Hogwarts don't like Fantasy. One reason I like it is because they can fly in the books."  
  
"Yeah." Meg leaned forward and motioned towards Lily to do the same. "Promise you won't tell anyone? Well when I was in my second year I was stupid enough to try to mix two different spells together. One was levitation, and the other one was.........well I can't remember the other one. Anyways they actually mixed. If you say it over your-self you can actually fly."  
  
"No way, that's so awesome."  
  
"I'll tell you the spell later."  
  
"Sounds good to me."  
  
They talked about a ton of stuff. The more they talked the more they found that they had a lot in common. Later the girls pushed the boys out of the compartment so they could change. A few minutes later they came back in and began to talk with the girls. James, and Sirius, suddenly realized that they could be mistaken for twins.  
  
Both absolutely loved fantasy. They were both the exact same height, and had the same body. They both had their hair to right before their shoulders, and they both hated makeup, and jewelry. That was with the exception of their lockets, which they had both gotten from a friend. The only difference was that Meg had dirty blonde hair instead of red and hazel eyes instead of green. They were like clones. As the train came to a stop Lily began to wonder were Meg was supposed to go. Was she supposed to go in the boats with the first years or with them in the carriages?  
  
"Hey Meg, when you go the letter did it tell you where you were supposed to go?"  
  
"Yeah, it said that I was supposed to go with the other students. When I get to the great hall I'm supposed to go see a Professor Dumbledore immediately instead of sitting at a table."  
  
"Perfect that means you can ride with us. I hope that you're in Gryffindor."  
  
"Well if that's the house that you all are in, then me too."  
  
They ran to get a carriage, then squeezed in. Now the carriages were made for four people only, unless you had a very small person. Seeing as how they didn't Lily ended up sitting on James's lap, though neither of them objected or minded. Lily, James, and Remus got in a huge debate while Sirius and Meg began to talk. Meg couldn't help but laugh at half of the things Sirius said; she in a way sort of liked him. Lily had been disturbed by their laughter and looked over in their direction. Lily smiled, Sirius had already made a move on Meg, even though he barely new her. She put her hands on Remus and James's mouths, and then pointed in their direction. They sat their and just stared at them for a few minutes. Finally the two realized that they were being watched.  
  
"What?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Nothing we were just watching you, carry on." Lily replied with a smile.  
  
Before Sirius could answer back the carriage came to a sudden halt. Meg got shoved into Sirius while Lily got shoved into James. Remus on the other hand stayed upright, and laughed at the outcome of this mess.  
  
"Why Meg, I never knew you were like that." A huge smile appeared on Sirius's face.  
  
"You wish!" as she got up she made sure her elbow "accidentally" got rammed into Sirius's stomach. The she exited the carriage.  
  
"Actually I do." He replied then followed her out of the carriage.  
  
They entered the great hall with Meg looking amazed. Lily pointed out Professor Dumbledore then she and the boys went and sat at the end of the table. Sirius made sure to save a seat next to him for Meg, convinced that she would be in Gryffindor. The first years came in most looking scared; a few though were calm looking. The list was called; twelve getting into Gryffindor then came Mega turn. She put on the hat and sat there. A few minutes passed and the hat made no move to yell out a name. Professor McGonagall was losing all of her patience and her temper was gaining more power with each second that passed. Just as she was about to rip the hat off of Meg's head the hat called out a name. 'Gryffindor.'. The marauders and Lily clapped the hardest and the longest.  
  
As Meg sat down next to Sirius Lily couldn't help but ask a question. "What took the sorting hat so long?"  
  
"Oh well he decided that I belonged in Gryffindor in the first few second. We started a conversation though, it wasn't until he realized that everyone was waiting for us did we end it though."  
  
They began to laugh but stopped abruptly as Professor Dumbledore stood up to speak.  
  
"Welcome to the first for some, last for others, next for may, year at Hogwarts. To certain students and the first year the forbidden forest is just that. For those of you who do not know what forbidden mean, it means you can not enter." He glanced at the Marauders. "Our head boy and girl this year are Mr. Potter, and Miss. Evans, congratulation. Now dig in!"  
  
Meg found she could barely eat. She was too disgusted at the way Sirius ate. "You'll have to get used the way Sirius eats." Lily laughed.  
  
"Is that possible?"  
  
"As hard as it may seem, yes you can get used to the way he eats."

* * *

Lily and Meg went to the girl's dormitory to get Meg's luggage. They then made their way to Lily's old room.  
  
"Okay the password is Elizabeth Haydon. If you change it tell us because, more likely we'll hang out either in hear or the heads dormitory."  
  
Lily opened the painting and walked in, Meg following.  
  
"Oh my gosh Lily! This is the most beautiful room I have ever seen."  
  
"Yeah it took me a few months to get it the way I liked it. Well anyways it's yours now so you can change it if you want."  
  
"I don't think I'll be changing it."  
  
"I just need to get some stuff out of here. I'll see you at breakfast; I'll come in and get you, so you don't get lost."  
  
"Thanks I appreciate all of this."  
  
"No problem."  
  
Lily shrunk her books and most of her stuffed animals. She shrunk a few lamps and her fan. Also some personal things she had left here. Meg had brought a ton of stuff from home, so Lily knew she was going to need all of this stuff. The room was almost bare when Lily left, but Meg had almost filled up the bookshelf with books and stuffed animals. She waved good-bye to Meg and made her way back to the Heads Dormitory. She reached the painting, which was an elf sitting under a tree, and said the password 'lightning and rain'. James was still in his old dormitory getting the rest of his stuff, so Lily chose the left room. The first thing she knew she was going to change was the colors of the walls. They were white, enough said! With a spell she had learnt in first year she changed the colors of the walls to where they were exactly like her old room. She unpacked all of her stuff and looked at her work. It was just like her old room, it was home. She lay down on her bed and whistled for her pet dragon. She had grown to an adult over the months. She was petting it and reading a book when she heard James come in the painting.  
  
"Hey Lily what room are you in?"  
  
"The left one, you have the right one!"  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"No problem."  
  
Thirty minutes later James knocked on her door.  
  
"Come on in!"  
  
"Wow Lily your room looks exactly like your old one. How did you get the walls to change colors?"  
  
"A spell I learned in first year. Do you want to know it?"  
  
"Is it the same one you use to change the color of peoples skin too?"  
  
"Yep, that's the one."  
  
"Then no I already now thanks though."  
  
"No problem."  
  
"Good night my lady." James bowed elegantly.  
  
Lily stood up and curtsied, "Good night good sir." and smiled as James left the room.  
  
Lily and James went to sleep that night anxious for their seventh year to begin.

* * *

A/N- hey thanx for reading the latest chapter. Here's the answer to some of your question.  
  
-the ball is for 7th years only unless they invite someone younger. It's like a leaving Hogwarts ball, something I invented for the story.  
  
-the issue about Peter and I know we need him because of the plot; I'm going to explain all of that in the epilogue. So you don't meet Peter till then.  
  
Thanx to my reviewers, you're the reason I've wrote this far.  
  
-Gotbubbles-  
  
-darkdestiny2000-  
  
-Tangerine-fever-  
  
-Monkeygurl1-  
  
-tigerlily78-  
  
-FreckledIrishMaiden-  
  
-jeaniebeanie33-  
  
Byes,  
Maddie. 


	10. kissable homework

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Nine-

Lily and Meg were inseparable! You would rarely find one without the other. People began to joke about them, and that they were long lost sisters separated at birth. They were only too happy to have another girl join there group. Her name was Samantha Timmons, and she was Remus's girlfriend. They had known each other since last year, and had talked a lot. Remus at the beginning of the year had gathered up all of his courage and had asked her out. She was a Ravenclaw, quiet when you first met her and loud when you got to know her. She was 5'5 like Meg and Lily. She had brown hair that came to right above her shoulder, with blonde highlights in it. She had dark blue eyes the color of the dark part of the ocean. They were the kind of eyes that someone could sit there and stare into them and not notice the time go by. And just like Lily and Meg she was a Fantasy Fan.

Like the Marauders the girls were given their own name, 'The Dreamers'. Remus and Sam, as she liked to be called, were very cute together. She knew that Remus was a werewolf but that didn't bother her in the least. Sam and Lily noticed that Meg had taken a fancy to Sirius, and that Sirius was totally smitten with Meg, though they both denied it when they brought up the subject. To Sam and Meg it was all too obvious that Lily and James were in a way destined for each other. In fact everyone in the whole school new that they were going to probably get together in this year.

* * *

It was the third week of school and they had already a ton of homework. Sirius could be heard every other minute sighing as loud as they possibly could. Between the sighs he could be heard complaining about how the teachers gave out too much bloody homework. That being a direct quote. Remus and Sam were out on a date, probably out near the lake taking a walk; he was so in tune with what girls liked. So that left Meg, Lily, and reluctantly James and Sirius in the common room doing homework. How Meg and Lily got the boys to do their homework was a complete and total mystery. But everyone knew those two would do just about anything for these girls, even the girls knew that and took advantage of that whenever possible.

"Hey Lily, what's the answer to number four?" James looked down at her. James was lying on the couch with Lily on the floor below him Sirius was opposite her with Meg in the armchair.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Honestly you two, Meg and me invited you down here so you could do homework with us, we didn't asay we were going to do homework for you!"

"Ah c'mon Lily......can't we come up with some sort of an arrangement?"

"Yes we can!" it was Meg that spoke this time making everyone look at her surprisingly. "For every problem you two get correct, and without our help, you'll get a kiss from us."

Everyone's eyes grew big, especially Lily's. "MEG!"

"Yes?"

"What are you thinking I can't give him a kiss?"

"Lily this I a guarantee way for them to be able to get their work done and actually right."

"Well your right there's just one thing you forgot."

"Really." Meg looked puzzled "What's that?"

"You forgot to ask me about this!!!"

"Oh.....you know.....I knew I was forgetting something" Meg laughed nervously "But as you can see their already working very hard and I can't just take it back."

"Well then you better hope they get them all wrong."

"You can hop that James gets them all wrong if you want. Between you and me though I hope Sirius gets them all right."

"Are you actually admitting that you like Sirius?"

"No, no not at all."

"Oh come on Meg! You sort of just gave yourself away right there anyways."

"Alright, alright you caught me. It's not as if you and Sam didn't know anyways."

"Well it was a little obvious."

"Shut up!"

"I suppose I should be thankful that there are only ten problems."

"Oh your right there are only ten, Dang."

Lily and Meg both laughed and got back to work, helping each other occasionally. They were halfway through with there potions essay when they were interrupted by James and Sirius. Meg took Sirius's and Lily took James's. Meg scrolled down his paper.

"You got eight out of ten problems correct, that means you get eight kisses. Do you want them all right now or spread out?" Next to Meg Lily and James both laughed silently as Sirius decided which one chose.

"I think I'll take them spread out, but I want one now though." They leaned in cautiously, as if they were scared to do it. They finally kissed and you could see the sparks fly. They sat there kissing for two minutes straight when finally Lily spoke up.

"Do you two want a room?"

That broke them apart. Meg was blushing hard, while at the same time blushing really hard. Sirius on the other hand wasn't blushing but he had his big goofy grin on his face.

"Well I think that's enough homework for me. See you guys in the morning." He got up and left for their room.

"Yeah I'll see you guys in the morning too." She picked up all of her books and walked to her room.

Lily looked down at James's paper and though 'ten out of ten. I'm going to kill Meg the next time I see her.' "You have all ten correct. That means you get ten kisses, I also suppose I have to ask you if you want them all right now or do you want them all at the same time."

James smiled, making Lily smile too.

"I believe that I'll take mine later except for one." He put a finger n his cheek making Lily smile even more.

"Alright keep them closed and don't open them until I say so okay."

"For a kiss on the cheek?"

"Just do it!" she said rolling her eyes.

"Fine."

Lily walked over to where James was sitting, his eyes were closed. "Remember now don't open them until I tell you to."

"Alright, alright."

Lily leaned down, but instead of kissing him on the cheek, she leaned down and kissed him on the lips. In reality it only lasted about five to ten seconds, but to them it lasted so much longer. It was like a tingly feeling, it was if the world didn't exist. She broke off the kiss and ran to the paining she crawled out of it and right before she closed it she yelled out 'okay you can open them now' then slammed the door shut. She ran as fast as she could to the head's dormitory. James opened his eyes dazed, and then touched his lips. They still had that tingly feeling. He got up and ran to the painting. There was no trace of Lily anywhere in site. He ran to a statue and took a shortcut to the head's room. He stepped out of the room, just in time to find Lily running head on into him. The wind was knocked out of them, and they both felled down. Lily ended up sitting on James's lap.

"Hello again." James grunted.

Lily looked down to see James and jumped. "How did you get here before me?"

"Secret tunnel"

"I might have known."

"Lily?" James asked quietly.

"Yes James?"

"Why did you kiss me on the lips?"

Lily was quiet for a while. She didn't know how to answer the question. The truth was that she liked James; she had for a long time. What was she supposed to tell him though?"

"Lily?"

"Because......I like you James." She said it quietly, it wasn't even as loud as a whisper but James heard it all the same.

"Is that true?"

Lily could only nod, words had left her. She was trapped, staring into James's eyes.

"You wanna know something?"

"Sure"

"I think I've liked you since the day we first talked. I was never able to tell you though."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Lily bent down lower and kissed him again. It lasted a lot longer this time, but the tingly feeling was still there. When they finally broke down they were both smiling.

"Be my Girlfriend?"

"Is that a request or an order?"

"A Request"

"Then I accept. Good night James."

"Good night Lily"

Lily got up and pulled up James with her. She began to walk to her room when James stopped her.

"Wait I have something for you."

He pulled out of his pocket a slightly crushed Lily and gave it to her.

"Thank-you James"

She came up and hugged him. They stayed like that for a while, neither one of them wanting to let go. The reluctantly let go and headed to their own rooms.

* * *

A/N- oh my gosh I am so sorry that I haven't updated for so long I lost my journal that I kept the story in and I ripped my hole room apart today so I could find it. Well I hope you like the story, and that you forgive me. Thanx to all of my reviewers-

-darkdestiney2000-

-Got Bubbles-

-sunni07-

-Morning Lily-

-monkeygurl1-

-wackyone-

-vickiicky-

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-tigerlily78-

-anno-

-christinamarie15-

Thanx to all of you soo much

Maddie.


	11. Hogsmeade and Tom

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Eleven-

* * *

James woke up earlier then he usually did on Saturday's. Last night's events were still in his mind as he dragged himself out of bed and got dressed. Quietly he walked over to Lily's room and slipped inside. She was sleeping peacefully in with Ella next to her bed. Ella was now fully grown up, whenever she breathed out little holographic flames spurted out of her mouth too. On her bedside table was the Lily James had given to her last night. He watched as Lily began to stir, and then eventually pry her eyes open. She stared at him for a moment as if she wasn't really registering him for a moment, then she smiled.

"My, my I didn't know you were a peeping tom."

"I just couldn't get enough of you."

Lily rolled her eyes, still smiling, "You are such a pervert."

"At least I'm not as bad as Sirius."

"That's true, now get out!"

"Why?"

"So I can get changed obviously. Did you actually think I was going to change right in front of you?"

"I had hoped you would."

"Well you hoped wrong."

"Fine, fine I'll leave. I'll be on the couch waiting for you."

Lily waited until he had closed the door then got out of bed. She walked over to her dresser and thought about what she wanted to wear. Finally she pulled out a pair of baggy jeans and a t-shirt saying 'Just insane enough to SEEM normal. On it, it had a little bunny with crazy eyes. (A/N- think about the happy bunny kind, If you haven't seen that show then I can't help you ) she pulled her hair up into a pony-tail and popped a piece of gum into her mouth. She didn't know what she was going to do if the world hadn't invented bubble gum. What a nightmare that would be. She walked out into the common room to find James actually reading a book! I know the shock.

"I never thought I would see the day when James Potter would actually read a book on his own free will."

"Well don't get too excited it's only a Quidditch book. The match is coming up soon; you'll come with me to cheer on Remus and Sirius right. (James had quit the Quidditch team last year, for certain specific reasons.)"

"You know I will."

Lily went and sat down next to James. Unconsciously he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. They just stayed like that for quite some time until they drifted off to sleep. Meanwhile breakfast was over and Lily and James had not shown up for it. This weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend and the last carriage would be leaving in thirty minutes, and they were getting a little worried. So Meg, Sam, Remus, and Sirius went to the heads dormitory, where they split off. The boys went to James's room and the girls to Lily's. All of them were a little shocked when they found the beds empty. They heard a small noise coming from the common room and quietly and slowly walked towards it. They all smiled at the site they saw.

"Awwww! Look at the cute little love birds." Meg and Sirius both said at the same time, though not on purpose.

This woke Lily up but not James. "Hey guys what's going on?"

"What's going on? Lily you and James missed breakfast, and the carriages to Hogsmeade leave in twenty-five minutes."

"Is that so?" Lily said she was still half asleep. "James wake up. JAMES!" that woke him up with a start.

"Well aren't you a site for sore eyes."

"Shut up, c'mon we missed breakfast; let's go to the kitchens real quick."

"Alright sure." They both got up, with some awkwardness though. James refused to let go of Lily's hand, which he had been holding the whole time they had been asleep. "Well hey guys, when did you get here?"

"Uh, James we've been here the whole time."

"Have you really?"

"Yeah" she nodded her head slow, acting as if he had issues. It was then that Meg realized that the two were holding hands. Then she got to thinking about it, the way they were sleeping, the holding hands. This only led to one solution! "OH MY GOSH!!!" everyone jumped at the sudden outburst. "You two totally hooked up last night didn't you?!"

Lily blushed and James smiled. Everyone else smiled too, had it not been for Meg's outburst they probably would have never found out about it.

"You can tell us all about it in the Kitchens." Meg said with a ton of eagerness in her voice. Before Lily could agree or disagree, they were being ushered out into the hallway.

"You know what, I don't think I'm that hungry anymore. In fact I think that I'll just go get a carriage. See you!" with that said she ran down the hallway as fast as she could. James who was still unwilling to let go of her hand, was dragged along with her. Meg and Sam both realized what Lily was doing. She was trying to get out of telling them.

"Lily get your butt back here this instant!" Meg shouted, as she ran after Lily and James. The others had no choice but to follow. They caught up to them just as they were climbing into a carriage. It was a very snug fit. Lily ended up sitting on James's lap, while Sam was on Remus's. Meg and Sirius got stuck sitting next to each other, which was very awkward for the both of them. When they finally reached Hogsmeade, and exited the carriage, the Girls took hold of Lily and the boys James, and headed into their separate directions.

Sam and Meg took Lily to the pub so that she could get something to eat, for which she thanked immensely. She sat down at a booth in the back with Sam and Meg. They began to constantly pester her until she had, had enough and began to tell them the whole story. Meg began to blush at the part where Lily told Sam what she had said, and that she felt obligated to ask James the same thing. She finished telling her tale until the food came, where she took a small break, much to the disappointment to Sam and Meg. She had left it off right where she was about to kiss James. As they walked to the book and paper store Lily finished her tale. Meg was smiling very largely, almost as large as Sirius could smile. When Lily told her this she took a swat at her, causing Sam to laugh.

They all came out of the bookstore, each with a large bag, bulging with books, and paper. They hit a few other stores, and then went to the Pub where they were going to go and meet the boys. They laughed all the way there, telling each other stories about themselves that took place before they had met each other. They walked in and began to look for the boys. They spotted them in a large booth talking to each other. The girls began to walk over to them, just as Samantha Peterson walked over too. Samantha absolutely hated Lily, because she had a major crush on James.

"Uh-Oh, looks like there's going to be trouble." Meg said as they continued on.

"Just what does she think she is doing? James has been taken with you since, well for quite some time." Sam added.

"What?"

"Oh my gosh Lily! Have you not noticed that since, James became friends with you, he hasn't dated at all?"

Lily looked back on this and noticed that it was true. Why hadn't she noticed it earlier than this? "C'mon let's go." They got to the boys the same time that Samantha did. She giggled that annoyingly high pitch laugh she has and waved at James.

"Hi James." James just smiled weakly and mumbled a hello. "How have you been?"

"Just fine."

"So who are you going out with?" she tried to sound casual and failing miserably. She was trying to hint towards James that he needed to go out with her.

"Actually I'm going out with Lily."

"What!" she looked horrified and then angry and turned towards Lily. "What does she have that I don't, all she is a bookworm!"

"Well she has common sense, all of her conversations don't go like this 'that is like so totally like not true', and she not a ditzy bobble head." The group held back a snicker, and those who were near and listening.

"Oh yeah, well can she like kiss better that me?" and she began to move in towards James. Well regardless to say James was to taken by shock, and Lily wasn't going to stand for that kind of crap. Before even she knew what she was doing she had reached out and grabbed some of her hair and yanked her back, just before there lips met. She let out a loud yelp and fell down on the ground.

"What the he-"

"I'll advise you not to use foul language around me. Another thing don't you dare try to kiss my boyfriend, because people will start thinking you're a slut, even though you are." Samantha just looked at her blankly. "And the last thing is that if you don't get out of my sight in the next thirty seconds you will find yourself with a black-eye and having to wear a ton of cover-up!"

There were no words for Samantha to say she let out what sounded like a gurgle, then quickly got up and left without looking back. She turned around just at the door to give Lily a long glare only to find Lily to make a small wave at her and imitate her a little. (A/N- think of what happened in Legally Blonde in the beginning when she got kicked out and Vivian did that head thing.) Lily turned back around to see the guys looking at her in amazement. She just rolled her eyes and walked out. She was going to go up to a store, and think, she didn't feel all that hungry anymore. Sam and Meg followed after her, laughing now. Not long after they were walking did they hear a voice calling out to them.

"Lily wait!" Lily turned around to see James running towards her. She turned around and continued to walk.

'I'll let him suffer a little then maybe next time someone tries to kiss him he might actually be able to block it.' Lily thought.

James finally caught up to her he was panting and gasping for breath. "Didn't you hear me calling you?" he asked between gulps of air.

"Yes I did."

"Then why didn't you stop."

"I don't know maybe it's the fact that you didn't even try to block the kiss that was coming your way."

James blushed and looked up. "I'm sorry about that Lily, I seriously didn't know she was going to try and kiss me, I mean I was shocked, and would have if I had been able to."

Lily turned around and looked at him. "Would you?"

"Absolutely!"

"Fine I'll forgive you on one condition."

James leaned back as if expecting a huge slap on the face. "And what is that?"

"Hold my books!" and without even waiting for him to understand this she dumped her bag on him making him make a loud oof sound, and fall down. Lily who was already walking away turned and laughed at the sight.

"Geeze Lily, how many books do you have in here?"

"Ten to fifteen, I forgot."

James got up and walked towards Lily "Well for not telling me how much it weighed, you have to do something for me."

"And what's that?"

"You have to give me one of those kisses you own me, on the lips." Lily blushed a deep red, but smiled never-the-less. Stood on her tipi toes and gave him a kiss that ended up lasting for a minute. They would have continued had it not been for the clearing of the voice, close to them. They broke apart to see there faces of their friends, all with big grins on them. Lily just laughed and gripped James's hand. He put an arm around her protectively.

"I am hungry, and want some food, let's go back to the pub." Lily said.

"Speaking of kisses, I have a proposition." Everyone looked at Sirius who was the speaker. "Meg I want one of the kisses you owe me." Everyone watched as she began to blush almost as red as Sirius was.

"And what's the second part?"

"I'll tell you after you kiss me." He replied with a twinkle in his eye, cautiously she came up to Sirius and gave him a kiss. She broke apart after a little while to see Sirius with a giddy look on his face.

"So what's the second part?"

"Well I had hoped it would be a more romantic situation but, would you like to be my girl-friend?"

She looked taken-aback, then thoughtful. "I suppose that I can do that."

"Good!" And he draped an arm over her. Meg was looking extremely content and happy. So it was seen six close friends walking together, in groups of two.

* * *

A week after the incident Lily found herself waking up to her alarm clock. She quickly shut it off, and as slow as a slug got out of bed. She slipped in the shower and took a rinse off, then came back out to get dressed. She picked a t-shirt that had a crazed bunny in the background and the words in the front saying 'Do I look stupid to you? Wait don't answer that!' and a long jean skirt that reached to her ankles. She grabbed her book bags and slowly slipped out of the Head's dormitory, not waking James in the process. As she reached the Great Halls doors she saw Meg and Sam round the corner talking. They had become synchronized lately, in how they woke up. They walked in laughing and chatting and sat down in there normal area. Fifteen minutes later in cam James, Sirius, falling over each other in the process. Remus followed them, in calm dignified and casually stepping over the other two marauders and walked over to Sam.

James and Sirius eventually untangled themselves, and walked over to the girls, and Remus. Most of Hogwarts was now in the hall, and the owls began to swoop in dropping mail off to their owners. Lily's black owl, Harry, swooped up and dropped off, to every one's horror, a howler. Lily looking confused gave Harry a treat then slowly opened the letter. In a voice as cold as ice a voice began to talk.

"I'm back Lily, I know where you are, and it's only a matter of time before I find you alone. You know who this is!"

And in the next second it burst into flames. The group and much of the people who were in the Great Hall looked over to where Lily was, they did a double-take in surprise. Lily was even more pale than usual, her eyes wide. She began to shake uncontrollably, rocking herself back and forth; James looked at her with concern.

"Lily......Lily!" She didn't answer though, he wrapped his arms around her, then almost recoiled, her skin was as cold as ice. In a matter of seconds she had gone from cherry to this. "Lily what's wrong?"

She snapped out of her faze. "I-I have to g-go to my class." Without another word she left in a hurry with her stuff. The other's called after her, but she just kept going. She made it into the hallway and began to walk as fast as she could, without actually running, to her class. She stopped dead in her tracks as she heard a voice behind her.

"Trying to avoid me Lily?" It was the same bone-chilling voice. She turned to see a pale boy who looked to be the age of twenty.

"Wh-what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see you of course."

"Well I don't want to see you so please leave."

"Oh but Lily I can't I'm under orders."

"I don't care about your orders, what do you want from me?"

"I think you know the answer. Do you remember what you said to a boy about six years ago?"

"Like you said that was six years, and I am not the same girl as I used to be."

"You are though; it's just buried deep within."

Just then James caught up with her and looked at the boy then back at Lily whose was pale. "Lily who's this?" For a minute neither one of them said anything.

"This is......Tom...Riddle."

James looked shocked then in a quick motion whipped out his wand and pointed to where Tom was, to find that he was no longer there. "That was the one who sent you the howler wasn't it?" Lily just nodded her head. "I think we need to talk." James grabbed her bag and walked with her to the head's dormitory. When they finally sat down, James asked the question.

"How do you know Tom Riddle?"

It was a few minutes before Lily spoke, her voice was quiet and soft. "I was a small girl. I was angry at my Aunt; I walked to the park alone. I sat on one of the swings, for a long time. I was approached by five older boys, they had a glint in there eyes, it made me so scared. I told them to go away, but this only seemed to amuse them more." Lily voice began to crack but continued "They began to advance, and I backed away, but I only had a limited amount of space to back away. It was when I had given up hope that suddenly, they were no longer there, it was as if they had just disappeared. It was Tom, he approached me cautiously he had kindness and warmth in his eyes, and I knew I could trust him. He told me not worry and that no one would hurt me. He hadn't turned into Voldemort yet, and he watched over me from that day on. He was the first person I told when I got my letter, and although he knew I was a muggleborn, he kept watch over me. I believe in my heart that he can't be all evil. To protect me like he did. When I found out that he was Voldemort I was crushed, hurt and very upset. He didn't try to talk to me anymore, but I knew that he was still watching out for me. I know the reason now too."

James looked at her in amazement; it was a surprise that she wasn't dead. "And what is that reason Lily?"

Lily slowly made eye contact with James, then in a whisper slowly said. "Because he's my cousin."

* * *

A/N Muhahaha a cliffhanger. I'm so evil.Sorry for taking forever to updating the story. I had a few different versions to write this as and finally chose this one. It's a lot longer too, go me. Thanx to all of my reviewers.

Snoopyviz

Kara Adar

Redhaired

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DarkDestiney2000

Thanx so much for being loyal and sticking with the story.

Maddie.


	12. an almost perfect day

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Twelve- 

* * *

"Because, he's my cousin."

"Your cousin? How can he be your cousin?"

"He's a half breed, his fathers a muggle and related to my family. I found out when I was in my fourth year. I haven't told a single soul though. I never ever wanted to see him again though."

"Why not?"

"I hate what he's doing, it's just wrong. I promised because of how I suffered when my Aunt was killed that I would do anything in my power not to see someone else hurt in that way. And since the majority of people that get hurt as badly as I did come from being one of Voldemort's victim. So I promised to stop him, even though I knew he was my cousin, and someone I trusted." By now tears were streaming down Lily's face.

Lily had always feared the day someone found out her secret. She knew that people would begin to think that she was an accomplice of him, and would do who knows what kind of things to her. James understood this, and new what it took to tell him. The trust she put in him was astounding. Lily's face was looking at the ground; she couldn't bring herself to stare into the eyes of James, scared of rejection.

James lifted Lily's face with her finger to where she had to look him in the eyes. "Lily, I would never ever tell your secret, and I would never ever reject you. So what that you're related to him, that doesn't make you a bad person yourself!" He then leaned down and placed a small kiss on her lips.

She smiled at him and hugged him, which he gladly returned. "Let's go to first period." James draped his arm over her, and she slid her arm around his waist. They took a seat near the back of the room and waited for the other members to get here all the while talking between themselves.

Five minutes after the had sat down Meg burst through the door looking like a half crazed psychopath on the loose. The thought of this made Lily laugh, making Meg turn her head her direction.

"There you are! I was so worried when you and James didn't return, are you okay? Who was that voice in the howler? You're not in trouble are you?" Meg kept ranting on and on that Lily couldn't hold back any more she just burst out laughing. Meg cut short her endless questions and stared at Lily who by this time had tears running down her face she was laughing so hard. Lily's laughter was highly contagious and Meg watched as soon James began to snicker as well, the progress to an all out laugh too.

"What's so funny?" the reply she got was Lily and James laughing harder. Meg couldn't help it she smiled largely and by the time the rest of the group got to the classroom they were met with Lily hanging on to James for dear life, Meg hanging on to Lily James using the wall as support and all of the sliding down to meet the ground.

"Oh dear! They've finally cracked." Sirius said shaking his head ruefully. "And she was such a good girlfriend!"

Lily hearing this comment laughed harder if possible, which got Remus to smile largely, and let out a small chuckle. He tried to hide it behind a serious mask but failed hopelessly. His attempt got Sam to snicker, till both of them were laughing along with the others. Then there was Sirius all by himself staring at the whole group thinking, 'Oh my gosh they really have gone crazy, and everyone said that I'd be the first to go!'

They finally calmed down, Lily's eyes were red from the tears along with Meg and James, who had been laughing the longest. They stopped just in time for the rest of the class to file in giving weird glances to the marauders (the marauders now include the girls.) who were all sitting on the ground in the back of the class. Professor McGonagall was the last one to enter, and looked at them shocked.

"What are you doing! Get to your seats, honestly!"

"Awww but professor McGonagall we were going to have a campfire moment. See we even got the fire." Sirius pleaded then said a quick few words when suddenly a blazing camp fire was in the middle of the group.

Professor McGonagall looked at them all with a look saying she was holding in her anger but she didn't now how much longer she could do it. Sirius looked up at her angelically, the complete opposite of him. Lily was holding her mouth shut but she couldn't help it any longer. A small snicker escaped as she clamped her mouth shut. The Professor shot her head in her direction and saw how hard it was for her to contain her laughter.

"Out!" she pointed to the doorway shaking with her rage. "You'll have to get your work later, I am in no mood what so ever to put up with this group today."

Sirius looked at her sullenly, even tried pouting but knew it was going to have zero effect on her. "Alright but I'm taking the campfire!" Sirius levitated the camp fire and stood there. Lily burst into muffled laughter as she had her hand over her mouth.

"OUT NOW!" Sirius went first with the camp fire and the rest filing out, many of them holding back laughter. When the professor turned around to the rest of the class she saw many of them holding back laughter also but quickly turned around. She walked to the front of the class and wrote down the assignment.

"No class today we will be doing the transfiguration of the an-" She was interrupted by the high pitch and clearly out of tune voice of Sirius in the hallway. Soon joined by the groups other voices.

"Kumbaya my lord Kumbaya….."

The kids at the front of the class heard the professor begin to mutter, and a few would swear that her eye twitched a little. "Lord help me." She walked to the door and stuck her head out. "Stop singing that song, and go somewhere lese where you're not disturbing my class!"

She walked back in while the marauder walked away, Sirius still levitating his fire.

"I'm starving….let's go to the kitchen's." Lily said after they wandered aimlessly for a while.

"Sounds good to me, I could always eat more." Sirius said leading the group to the kitchens.

"You could always eat more Sirius, everyone in the whole school knows that!" Meg and Sam laughed. Remus was the one who made the comment.

"Are you insulting me?"

"No he's just pointing out the obvious." James laughed.

They ate in the kitchens and had a grand old time, they finally persuaded Sirius to get rid if the fire, though he really didn't want to do it. They still had about thirty more minutes until there next class and still had no clue on earth what they were gong to do.

"Well I don't know about you but I'm going outside!" said Lily and she skipped to the doorway, the others having no choice but to follow her, after all she was so strong headed. She walked to the large rock next to the lake and stood there, anyone who looked at her could tell she was thinking.

"It's perfect." She suddenly said out loud making the others jump.

"What's perfect?" Sam and Meg asked cautiously, knowing that some of Lily's ideas were on the weird side.

"The water it's perfect!" and before anyone could respond she ran to the old willow tree hanging over the lake and dived in.

They all looked at her in shock as she swam around like she had no care in the world. She came up near to them and before they could react she splashed them with water then swam away laughing.

"Oh you'll pay for that." James yelled after her then dived in after her. It took him a while to actually catch her since she had a head start and was very determined to elude him. He finally caught her picked her up….with a strength she didn't know he had…..and threw her back in the water. She laughed and came up to him. They began to whisper and occasionally glance to the rest of the marauders way. The knew the sparkle in Lily's eyes meant that they were plotting something against them. Finally Sam couldn't take it anymore.

"That's it instead of them plotting against me I'd rather just join them on my own time." She then jumped in and swam out to them…they all huddled in a circle and talked glancing over t the still some-what dry marauders on the shore.

"I'm going along with Sam, you can tell that they're plotting something over there." Then she too jumped in.

Remus and Sirius looked at each other then shrugged what else had they to loose? They jumped in also and swam out to the group.

"I told you it would work." Lily laughed the shoved James playfully.

"Yeah, yeah!"

"What do you mean what would work?" Sirius asked when he got in talking distance with them….which actually was a considerable amount away from them.

"Well I told James that if we stayed here talked to each other and then occasionally glance at you that you all would eventually come in thinking that we were going to do something to you. James didn't believe me but now I've proved him wrong."

They all looked at Lily's smug face and laughed. "So who's up for a quick round of Marco Polo?" Meg asked.

They spent the next ten minutes playing Marco polo until they realized they had five minutes to get to there next class. They walked into the castle dripping wet.

"What's out next class again?" asked Sirius.

"Potions!" The girls replied in disgust.

"Then I say that we don't even bother with drying ourselves off do you agree?"

They all thought about it while still walking towards the dungeons. "I'll go with you Sirius!" Meg said, Sirius smiled at he then draped his arm around her.

"I'm with you too." Sam and Remus said them linking arms too.

"What the heck it doesn't bother me, not with how long I've been hanging out with you guys." Lily laughed as she and James walked with each other.

When they entered the dungeons the teacher was nowhere to be found but they got a lot of odd looks from their classmates. None of them asked though, just in case they weren't in a good mood. They sat at the back of the class talking and laughing among themselves. When Lily looked up she glanced around the room at the other people. She saw Samantha and her friends give her a dirty glare then went back to talking about whatever they were talking about. She saw small little groups talking in there in a small place off to the side was someone she never noticed before was a girl, all by herself.

"Hey guys I'll be right back."

They looked at her questionably but didn't say anything. They watched as she walked over to that unnoticed girl off at the side lines. Lily sat down next to her, and smiled. She looked a little shocked that someone was sitting next to her.

"Hi I'm Lily."

"Hi, I'm Amanda." Her voice was quiet, as if she was afraid to talk alone.

"How long have you been at Hogwarts?"

"I came in during the middle of the first period."

"Where from?"

"From Poland, my father was stationed there since my second year."

"That's cool, do you want to come sit with me and my friends?"

"Sure, that's be nice."

"Alright come on." Lily grabbed her hand and dragged her over to the marauders. "Guys this is Amanda, she'll be hanging out with us. That's James, Sirius, Remus, Meg, and Sam." She pointed to the different person as she said the name.

They all said hi and Lily pushed James a little and made room for Amanda on the edge. "Sorry it's a bit wet."

"That's okay, it doesn't bother me." Amanda liked to read anything not only fantasy but other things as well. She wasn't as big on fantasy as the other girls and she wasn't very good at writing but could draw amazingly. Lily looked at the sketches she had made.

"These are amazing!"

"Not really."

"Yeah they are I mean I couldn't draw like that without magic to save my life." Amanda smiled but before she could reply the teacher walked in and glanced at the six. He ignored Amanda seeing that she wasn't wet.

"What are you six doing in my classroom all wet?" they really hated this teacher. She was like an adult version of Malfoy and Snape, totally Slytherins and full of himself.

"We went for a swim." Sirius said smiling.

"And what were you doing out of class?"

"We got kicked out of it." Meg said smiling innocently.

"Ten points each from Gryffindor!" He began to walk away and to the front of the class when he stopped hearing Amanda ask Lily…. "Isn't that a little harsh?"

"And who are you?"

"Amanda sir."

"Are you judging the way I run my class?"

"She's new and was just asking ME a question. So no she wasn't judging you."

The professor looked at Lily. "I believe I asked Miss. Amanda, not you."

"Well I'm answering for her."

"Then you will have detention, and I want you out of my classroom now!"

"FINE! It's a horrible class anyway because the teacher doesn't do any actual teaching!" Not waiting for a reply she gathered her stuff and slammed the door shut on her way out.

"Any other comments?"

"Only that she's right!" Sam and Meg said then they too exited the classroom.

James looked at Amanda. "You can do what you want…if you hang out with us though you'll get a lot of detentions so it's up to you…Lily will understand if you want to hang out with someone else. This teacher only favors the Slytherins, so you might not get too much help in this class."

"I think I'll stick it out…tell Lily thanks though…and that I'll still talk to her."

"No problem!" He glared at the professor then exited with Sirius and Remus to go find the girls.

They found Lily with an angry look on her face with Sam and Meg. As they came up closer to him they heard Lily spit out venomously "That stupid old windbag. He's such an old geezer that he had no common sense or human emotions left in that rotting corpse of his."

Sirius burst out laughing, although Lily never ever used language she sure could substitute enough that it sounds just as bad. They found themselves walking the corridors once more, amazing how many times they found themselves kicked out of their classes. And for once it wasn't Sirius's fault, though it usually was.

"I have the best idea!" Sirius said suddenly making everyone look at him like 'oh no what does he have planned now?' "Since we have lunch next let's go hang out in the great hall, we can have all these fun things to do since it's empty."

The others glanced at each other then finally Meg spoke up. "Sirius I'm so proud of you….you actually made a smart idea!" the other's snorted.

"Why tha- wait a second…that wasn't very nice of you though." Meg laughed and tore away from him and ran for her dear life. She made her way into the Great Hall the other's close behind her especially Sirius. Just when he was about to catch her she made a small detour them climbed over the table.

They spent the next hour and a half playing tag in the Great Hall. Sirius suggested they play Marco Polo but his suggestion got vetoed. James was it and was chasing after Lily just as she jumped on the nearest table the great hall doors opened and in entered professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and Professor Minnie. The marauders didn't noticed and the three professors stood there shocked, and then very amused. It was until Lily ran by the great hall door that she noticed them. She stopped dead in her tracks.

"Professors!" she said horrified. James wasn't quite as graceful though and due to the sudden halt of Lily he came barreling into her, making them both tip over, Lily landing onto James's lap. Everyone stood there horrified.

"Very amusing I must say so myself, but if I were you I would go ahead and sit down seeing as how lunch is about to begin." Professor Dumbledore looked down at them with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. Even professor McGonagall couldn't help but smile down on them.

"Yes professors." Lily got up and lifted James up with them then they walked to their normal seats trying to hold back their laughter. Sure enough in about one more minute or so the rest of the castle filed in laughing, and food began to appear. It certainly has been a crazy day.

They actually made it to their next class and stayed in it, but then Lily and James left early from dinner to go prepare for a prefects meeting. They walked down until they went in the room. The others wouldn't be arriving at least until about five more minutes.

"I believe that today I have been more assertive then in my whole life!" Lily said laughing.

"I know I was so shocked when you told the professor that he didn't teach very well."

"It was the honest truth. Anyways don't get me started on that otherwise I'll get all riled up again and who knows what I'll say."

The other prefects gathered in and the meeting came to order. They agreed on a Christmas ball, and a Halloween parties in their common rooms, that way we could have fun longer into the night. The girls wanted something in the spring…but they hadn't quite come up with it yet. While the others left all of the 7th year prefects were asked to stay behind.

"This years 'Going Away Ball' will be two weeks before we actually leave. All we have to decide know is what music we want. Do we want a live performer or do we want a D.J. that way we can listen to a variety of song?"

The majority of the people wanted a D.J. that way they could listen to other songs as well and not just ones by a single band and group.

"Is there anything special you want for the ball?"

A seventh year Hufflepuff rose her hand. She was very shy. "I think we should have a garden or the outside made up pretty. Because you know more people get engaged at the end of the year then any other time."

"That's sounds like a good idea to me. Write out all your ideas on it, then give me or James the list and we'll submit it to professor Dumbledore to see if he like it. Any other ideas or questions?"

No one else rose there hand. "Alright then this meeting's closed. We'll see you next prefect meeting."

The group left talking among themselves. Lily and James gathered the papers left by the prefects and put them in the folder. "Now I can go finally take a shower. I feel awful since I haven't had a shower since yesterday." Lily sighed in relief as the walked to the head's dormitory. James only laughed.

Lily immediately went to her room. She walked over to Harry who hooted twice, telling her that he was happy to see her, then gave him a treat, he then grabbed a holographic treat and gave it to Ella, stroking the dragon's head. She then grabbed her pajamas and went and took a long hot shower. When she came out a small not lay on her pillow.

_Come to the small common room of our heads dormitory for a nice treat._

_James._

Lily smiled and walked into the common room to see a small table two chairs candles lit and desert waiting on the table. James was nowhere to be seen. Lily smiled and walked closer. She found a tag with her name on it, and just as she was about to scoot herself in she found that James was already doing that.

"What's all this?" Lily asked as James sat down.

"Well since we had to go to a prefect meeting…we didn't get dessert."

"Dessert by candlelight different, but wonderful. Thank you."

They ate their dessert laughing and having a grand old time, it was after the dished were gone and the table away that the two were cuddled up together on the couch both falling asleep when James said what he wanted to say for a long time now.

"Lily….I love you."

Lily smiled. "I love you too." And they fell asleep perfectly content. A perfect ending of an almost perfect day.

* * *

A/N- hey what did you think. I'm so sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up especially since I left you at a cliffhanger. Thanx to all of my reviewers. And if you want I started another story if you want to check it out thanx again to the following…

-Kara Adar-

-Me The Cat-

-Annmarie Aspasia-

-secludeddark- 

-hypaevr-

-xoxox-xoxox-

Hope you liked the chapter,

_Maddie. _


	13. an unforgettable hogsmeade day

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Thirteen-

* * *

Lily woke up with unaccustomed warmness around her that wasn't her blankets. She wiggled a little and heard a small groan behind her making her jump until she realized that it was just James and they had fallen asleep in the common room. Today was Saturday, thank God and they didn't have any classes they could be kicked out of like yesterday's incidence, though that was a lot of fun. She snuggled closer to James and drifted back to sleep perfectly content in his arms.

About an hour later James woke up to find that he was holding Lily who was still asleep he smiled fondly at her, he really, truly did love her, and was the happiest man on earth because he knew that she loved him too. He held back a small laugh because it had only been a little over a year since the boys had met Lily and her oddness. Less then a few months for the girls, and already they had become a major part in their life he was glad though. He was glad of that day the black owl came to Lily telling her that her parents were dead, though not for that reason, and how they decided it was weird how no one knew where she slept. He was glad for the day he walked into Lily's room, and into her life.

James felt Lily stir beneath his hands and he looked down at her. Lily peeled open her eyes and sat there blinking for about a minute tying to wake up fully, then she looked up to see James was smiling at her.

"Morning Sunshine!"

"Morning, how long have you been awake?"

"Only a few minutes. I was just thinking on past times."

"Past times….like what?"

"Like that time we walked into your room for the first time and then you came out. You were the last thing we expected. You know you really made me and Sirius a little self aware because you looked really hot in your pajamas."

Lily laughed and smacked him playfully. "Yeah and I was sure that Sirius had had like a brain transplant with a monkey or something, I kind of felt sorry for him. I was thinking that whole conversation are you all right, do you need help? Kind of things."

"That's' okay Sirius gets that a lot. Speaking of him what do you think of him and Meg?"

"I think that they're a cute couple totally perfect for each other in every single way!"

"Awww Lily that's soooo nice of you." Sirius fake cried from the entryway with the rest of the gang behind him. He ran up and gave them both a hug and wiped away a fake tear.

"What are you all doing here?" Lily said stretching and reluctantly pulling away from James who didn't like that either and pouted at her a little making her smile.

"We came to see where you were I mean it's ten' o'clock now for Pete's sake we've got places to see people to talk to, and we have to have some fun. Honestly to think that you would be content to just sleep all day, even though that does sound like a good idea, is an outrage!" Sirius rambled on making the others and James and Lily roll there eyes.

"Fine Sirius we'll get up and go change." Lily said yawning and walked to her room Meg and Sam following and then starting up a conversation on Lily on what had happened last night after the prefects meeting. James got up too stretching and with Sirius and Remus went to his room, so they could talk too. Lily picked out a pair of jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt with a cute fat penguin on it saying "Chill". Winter was coming up fast and the water although perfect yesterday would probably be a little colder today, she really needed to go Christmas shopping, and get it over with. They went to the common room of the heads dormitory to find the boys were already waiting, having no need to fix their hair because I doubt that they've even heard of the word gel before. They walked to the kitchens since there wasn't much time left to eat breakfast in the Great hall.

They were greeted with the enthusiastic faces of the house elves who were only too pleased to help anyone and everyone. They sat down at a small table and began to eat some leftovers that they had from breakfast.

"So what are we going to do today?" Sirius said stretching after he finished eating.

"I don't know it's not a Hogsmeade weekend or anything and it's so boring around here unless we're pranking anyone." James replied

"So why don't we just go to Hogsmeade? I mean it's not like anyone else will find out what we did." Lily said casually making the others look at her. Lily sure had changed a lot since hanging out with them.

"Did you just say what I think you said?" Meg asked.

"Well fine if you guys don't want to do that then that's fine with me but I really need to start my Christmas shopping before the rush begins."

"Well then let's go!" Sam said making everyone look at her too. Because let's face it, Lily and Sam are the two most well behaved students in school for them to even suggest doing something against the rules was amazing.

Not waiting for a reply Lily and Sam linked arms and walked out of the room and down the hall before the others caught up. They walked up to the one eyed witch statue one by one and went down in it. They walked the long road to the village, then James took the lead, Lily following him he peaked in and seeing the coast was clear. He and Lily climbed up into the storage room, then slowly walked towards the main store. He peeked around the corner and seeing that the manager was busy helping someone else they sneaked into the small crowd of people. Remus and Sam soon came up behind them, and they were just about to leave when Lily saw that Meg and Sirius had just been caught. Acting on impulse she ran up to them.

"Did you find it?" She acted a little frantic; she wasn't that bad of an actress when it came down into it.

"Find what young lady?" The manager looked down at her, and not with very kindly or trusting eyes, not that she blamed him or anything.

"I had this small little bouncy ball, one of my favorite things in the whole world, and it got away from me. Well I'm afraid that it bounced in your storage room, so they volunteered to go look for it. Honestly we didn't mean any harm!" Lily had this irresistible charm that most people just couldn't resist, and as she finished her story his face had softened quite a bit.

"Alright just empty out your pockets, just to make sure and then you can go no questions asked."

"Oh thank-you sir!" Lily shot him a dazzling smile, and you could tell it was taking Sirius quite a bit of strength to keep a straight face.

They emptied out their pockets and seeing that they had no chocolate/candy he let them go with a wave, and they walked outside, James, Remus, and Sam following them, looking incredulously at Lily. She had changed a lot since they had first met her.

"Lily that was the best story I have ever heard!" Sirius said laughing.

"Well I couldn't let you get in trouble now could I, honestly where would you be without me?"

"Safer!" Meg snorted and laughed "I mean this was your idea."

"Really I don't recall it being my idea." Meg shoved Lily playfully "Oh come on you know you wanted to come too!"

"Okay so I did but that's not the point. You've changed a whole bunch; I can remember when you wouldn't do a single thing out of line."

"Yeah and it was going great until you all showed up." She sighed thoughtfully and with some pretty good reflexes she dodged the smack aimed at her from Meg and ran down the road laughing watching as the others had no choice but to follow her.

They broke up into girls and boys and went shopping for the opposites which was easier said and thought then actually done. Lily knew what she was getting Sirius, and Remus in fact it didn't take all that long to get them theirs. And she knew what she was going to be getting for the girls she would just have to wait till later to get them. It was the present for James that was giving her the most grief. Every place she went to she just couldn't seem to find that perfect thing, until something entered her mind, and she knew it was the right thing.

"Hey guys before we meet up with the boys for lunch let's go down to the post office I need to get something."

"Sure no problem." Meg said casually as she made her purchase.

"What were you planning on getting there?" Sam asked as she joined Lily in the entrance hall as they waited for Meg to pay.

"Actually it's going to be James's gift, it's the perfect thing for him."

"And what is that?" Meg spoke up as she walked towards them.

"See now I'd tell you but I don't want it to leak out, not that I am saying you guys are blabber mouths or anything it's just I really want him to know first what I got him. But I tell you what I'll tell you Christmas Eve."

"You have it so bad." Meg said laughing, which made Sam laugh to.

"Come on let's go!" Lily walked briskly out and trotted towards the station, making the others run, which she thought was a doable punishment since they had laughed at her.

What ever Lily was sending out for she did it fast and without Sam or Meg getting a chance to even glimpse at the name of what she asked for, and ignoring their badgering and pestering she walked to the small but quaint restaurant where they were meeting the boys, to find that they weren't there yet. The reason why was because James was having the exact same problem as Lily was only he hadn't found a solution to it yet. Very sullenly with the guys he made his way to the place they were meeting the girls when he looked into the window of the nearest shop and saw the perfect thing for Lily. He ran up to get a closer look and accidentally tripped over his own feet so the outcome was more like banging into the glass. A little girl was on the inside and she dropped what she was doing in fright, looked up at James and ran off screaming, much to the enjoyment of Sirius and Remus who watched the whole thing. He ran inside, to talk to the business manager and came out five minutes later looking much happier then he had before.

James looked down at his watch and noticed that they were really late for meeting the girls. "Aw Crap! C'mon guys we have to get there fast were already ten minutes late!" And with that said they raced on down to the restaurant.

They arrived out of breath to see the girls were in a corner talking amongst them and laughing at whatever they were saying. They walked over and took their assumed places next to their other half, as most of Hogwarts said, and ordered. In the middle of lunch Lily spoke up.

"Okay, now that we've shopped for the other half…." This comment made everyone laugh. "…..I'm going to shop with James that way I can shop for Meg and Sam, and he can shop for Sirius and Remus."

"That sounds like a pretty good idea; I have no problem with it." James said agreeing.

"A chorus of 'me either's' were heard from the rest of them, then they continued their lunch having the time of their lives. When everyone was finished both talking and eating, because the talking laughed much more longer then the eating with the exception of Sirius, but then that was no surprise to them, they walked out of the restaurant, and went their separate ways.

All of them found what they wanted for the others quiet easily, and since their was time to spare walked all over the town just talking. It was peaceful and Lily liked it much better than the everyday noise in the castle. But the peace was shattered as no sooner had they left a shop then something large rammed into it with a loud crash. Screams were heard throughout the city some close by and others far away. Lily looked around frantically trying to figure out what was going on when he saw that their out of alleyways and back roads came dozens of deatheaters!

"Oh my god!" Lily said breathless. "James we have to find the others!"

But James was already a step ahead of her he gripped Lily's hand hard and ran towards the city calling out the others names, dodging curses. Lily took out her wand and as she ran yelled protecting spells at the building and curses at the deatheaters. They heard a shout behind them and saw that Sirius and Meg were coming from one direction and Remus and Sam from the other. As soon as they had reached them they took off running. They headed the opposite way from the castle, because they had seen some making their way to the gates, so instead they ran for the mountains behind the town. Lily had a stitch in her side, Sam was wheezing a little, and Meg was pale, not from the excitement but from over excerption. They were almost out of the town when Lily heard a scream behind her, one of a young child's. She stopped and turned to see that there was a little girl maybe four years old crying her heart and soul out for her mother and father, who in the confusion must have lost her.

"Lily come on, we have to get to shelter!" the other's who had gone on but stopped when they noticed she had.

She turned and looked up at them and the beckoned her to hurry up, she turned back again to see in horror that the girl was being approached by a deatheater. Unimaginable fear and hatred filled her, and forgetting the wand at her side, she acted on impulse.

"NOOOOO!"

She had done it before but never across such a distance. She had once lifted James, Sirius and Remus with wandless magic, and now she was using all of her power to get that child. To help her focus she stretched out her arms towards the child, who with fear of being approached by a deatheater had passed out a few seconds earlier. The girl floated towards her as fast as possible. With his prey gone the deatheater was furious, who was this girl to do wandless magic. He raised his wand and pointed it at Lily much to the horror of James and the others. Lily having opened her eyes took one hand away from the girl, put in front of her in the direction of the deatheater, and with the last of her strength she called forth the rest of her power. She wasn't quite sure how she did it; she only knew that it saved her life. From her hand came something like a force field but much more powerful, because as he shot curses at her they bounced back everywhere.

The girl finally reached Lily and she hugged her to her chest then with one hand now free she grabbed her wand and yelled the first curse that came to her mind. This happened to be "Petrificus Totalus". The deatheater did not expect such a fight from so young a girl and in his daze of being defeated by one so young he did not get the chance to dodge the curse thrown at him. He fell flat on his face with a thud, and Lily's force field came down and she hugged the little girl tightly. It wasn't until she heard running behind her that the full force of what she had just done came upon her and the sudden weariness like she had had when she lifted James, Sirius, and Remus hit her.

James was the first to reach her and he hugged her so tightly, she was shocked to see that there were tears in his eyes. "Lily are you alright!" Shaking her which didn't help the coming headache she had.

She gently touched his face, making him instantly calm down. "I'm alright James, calm down, I'm alright, everything's fine."

"No it's not Lily, you could have d-died!" His voice cracked at the last part of the sentence.

"But I didn't." She kissed him lightly on the lips and hugged him. He held her as if she were never going to let go, which to tell you the truth he really didn't want to.

Lily slowly got up with the help of the others and she picked up the child. They looked around tow to see that some of the buildings were completely gone, others on fire and some untouched, but there were no more deatheater to be seen anywhere in the town. They slowly made their way down from the hill and walked by in amazement and sadness at all the destruction that had happened. Most of the townsfolk were in hysterics, but those few who were calm were trying to calm down and soothe the others. It was then that Lily heard an irate cry above all the others, one that sounded so sad and desperate that Lily knew instantly that this was probably her child. She kept crying out "NATALIE! NATALIE!"

Lily walked through the crowd towards the voice when she entered a clearing to see a women crumpled in the middle sobbing hard.

"Excuse me ma'am but is this the child you're looking for."

The woman looked up then spotted the girl in Lily's arms shout with relief, and ran towards them. She gently took the girl from Lily's arm and checked for a pulse, and seeing that there was one she burst out with more sobs only these were of joy and relief. Through these sobs she continued to say 'Thank-you' and 'bless-you'. Lily seeing just how close to hysterics she was, shrugged off help from the others, and put an arm around the lady and led her into the nearest building which just happened to be Madame Rosmerta's "The three broomsticks." And to also just happened to be that Madame Rosmerta knew the women and promised Lily that she would take care of her.

It wasn't until she was out of the three broomsticks and had almost collapsed that she accepted help from James. They decided that they might as well go through the main gates, since Dumbledore by now knew they had sneaked out, and made the long trip there. And indeed he did know for as they approached the gate, they saw him waiting there with Madame Anne, and both looked worried sick, especially since Lily was having to hold on to James to stand up, not that he minded, in fact since she kept sagging every few steps he just picked her up and carried her the rest of the way.

"You are not hurt are you?" Dumbledore said coming towards them at a pacing level.

"Not physically sir, but Lily's drained, I don't know if she can make it to the infirmary without passing out." James said quietly.

"Very well then we will go to the infirmary, and you will tell me all that happened and we'll see if you deserve punishment or not." And although there was little laughter at the current moment because of what had just happened, with the small twinkle in the otherwise serious face of Dumbledore, they smiled and made their way up to the infirmary.

* * *

"My lord we invaded Hogsmeade as ordered." A deatheater bowed at the feet of Lord Voldemort in a darkly lit room.

"Very good, and yet I believe there is more to be said, am I right?" He said deathly quiet, in a half hissing voice.

"Yes My lord, six students from Hogwarts were there."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"My lord one of them used wandless magic to a very high degree."

Lord Voldemort leaned in curious to this; this was something that interested him greatly. For he was trying to get all wandless users on his side, or to kill them off. "And did you find out the name of this student?"

"Yes my lord, her name was a Lily Evans."

At the name Lord Voldemort reacted. He leaned back and smiled, then laughed. "Lily Evans you say, you have done very well to bring me this information, you may go."

The deatheater left but as he did he could still hear Voldemort and his last words. "Lily Evans, this is a very big surprise."

* * *

A/N- hey here's the chapter and I hope you enjoyed it, I'm sorry it took me so long to get it up and I'll try to get the other's up faster. I'll also try and update my other stories. Thanx to all of my reviewers.

-FAE (THE CRAZY FAIERY)-  
-LCH8292-  
-Jamie Leigh-  
-Chill-C-  
-wierdo-  
-hypa4evr-  
-livingdead2010-

Thanx again  
Maddie


	14. aftermath and training

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Fourteen-

* * *

Once Lily had been situated in her bed they settled down and launched into the full explanation of what happened. No one took blame in who suggested going to Hogwarts, and they "Casually" left out how they got here. But when they talked about how Lily used her power they noticed that Dumbledore was very surprised, interested and extremely concerned. In fact the concern on his face over powered everything else, and the five knew that something was up, and it didn't look like it was a good something. After they had finished with the stories they waited on professor Dumbledore to speak first, but he didn't do it for the longest time. So they looked back at Lily, and James's heart nearly broke. She was lying their and could not have been more pale. The nurse Madame Anne was just finishing going over her and came towards the group.

"She will be alright, just don't expect her to wake up today and maybe not even tomorrow."

"What's wrong with her Madame Anne?" James asked quietly.

"She is suffering from extreme shock and exhaustion; she is going to need this rest." Upon seeing James's worried face, and those of the others she smiled reassuringly. "Do not worry! There is no permenate damage, all she needs is rest, she will be back to normal when she wakes up." The five of them smiled gratefully at her and looked back at professor Dumbledore.

"This worries me greatly. I have found out from a source of ours that Voldemort…." Only Madame Anne flinched "……Is trying to get all people who can do wandless magic on his side. Should they refuse, they usually die."

The five of their faces turned, if even possible, even more pale than before. "Professor is their nothing we can do. Lily was the first person to befriend me; I do not want to lose her as a friend and sister." Meg said quietly as she squeezed the hand of Sirius.

"Lily is always willing to help me no matter what she is doing, and she's taught me a great deal of things. Meg's right, she is like my sister too." Sam said, as she too squeezed Remus's hand.

"Lily was never worried about the fact that I'm a werewolf." Remus said it out loud because everyone in the group knew and no one else was in the hospital wing. "In fact she knew since first year and never told. She was the first person other than James and Sirius that I knew who didn't even flinch when they knew, and never treated me any differently. In fact she was better then the marauders. Pity never entered her eyes; she treated me just as she would treat anyone else. She is one of my greatest friends."

"Lily has always helped others even me when I really didn't deserve it. She's hid me from a few teachers and even took the blame for me for a few things I did. Since she became our friends she'd bethe thing other then Meg and Sam, that keep the mood almost always light, and everyone happy. It's my turn and the others to do the same thing for her. It's our turn to help Lily, not her us." Sirius said quietly. After seeing what had happened today he really wanted to help Lily. And other than the fact that she is his friend, he also wanted to do it, because he wanted to see James's and Lily's relationship work. No one deserves the other better then they do.

They all looked expectantly at James since they had all put in a comment. He was quiet for a few minutes looking at his hands then slowly he spoke. "I'd give my life to save Lily, I want to do anything that is possible to save her and keep her safe. And it's because………..it's because I love her."

The others were quiet, they all sort of knew it and yet when he said it, the tingly feeling came to every single one of them. Dumbledore smiled fondly at him and the others. "I will give Lily the chance to be trained on how to use her magic. And for you, defense lessons, which she too will be given a chance to take. You do not have to do this, and if for any reason the pressure becomes too hard for any of you, you can drop out at any time. Is there anyone who knows with now if they absolutely want to do this?"

They all looked at Dumbledore and one after the other put in there hand saying they were going to do it. Dumbledore's smile grew more largely. "Now that that is settled, you will have two day's of detention, for sneaking out."

They all laughed a small chip of the weight coming off them, and they slumped back a little in relief. Madame Anne then came out and sniffed in disapproval. "You five are about to pass out of shock and exhaustion too. I want you to go up to your dormitories, or the head's room, whichever you choose, and relax. I don't want you doing anything school, as much as it pains me to say that, and nothing major, just relax, or you can go to sleep."

"We'll do that Madame Anne. But I will be coming back later to see Lily again." James said smiling a little, then he and the others walked of to Meg's room, which had the most room, not to mention the miniature refrigerator and bean bag chairs to sit on. They talked a long time, mostly stories, quite a few of them were about Lily, but she was on everyone's mind at the time. Slowly one by one they drifted off to sleep. Meg and Sam fell asleep in the arms of Sirius and Remus, Remus drifting off next, and finally Sirius was yawning so bad that James just told him to go to sleep, and that he was going to go see Lily now.

James walked down the mostly deserted corridors, with the exception of the few students going to bed before the curfew was up. He reached the hospital wing to find that Madame Anne was sitting in her desk's chair asleep and softly muttering to himself. James smiled, he really liked Madame Anne, she had helped all six of them quite a bit. He grabbed a blanket off of the nearest hospital bed and placed it over Madame Anne, then made his way over to the bed that Lily was at.

She was still sleeping and still looked pale, but some of the color had returned, which made James feel a whole lot better. He smiled fondly at her then thought about the day's events, finally being alone. The emotions of earlier came back to him. He was scared. Really, really scared. He loved Lily and he was sure that she was the one. Seeing her almost killed today, and so pale in the hospital wing here, it was tearing him up inside. He suddenly hated Voldemort even more so then before. Why did he have to be bad, after what Lily had told him, why couldn't he have been a better person. Why did anyone have to be bad, sure it was an alternate universe thinking that there could only be good in the world but it was the kind of thing that was worth fighting for. It was going to be worth fighting for the hope of the little kids who want to grow up in times that are not bleak, that have no Hope. He wanted to fight for the people who are constantly scared everyday because there families are targeted. He wanted to fight for Lily!

He fell asleep still thinking thoughts like this, and just before he drifted off he unconsciously grabbed Lily hand. Sometime in the middle of the night Madame Anne woke up with an uncomfortable crick in the neck noticing that she had a blanket over her. She slowly got up muttering under her breath something along the lines of 'She was getting really old!' and walked out to check on Lily. She walked out to see James asleep gripping Lily's hand and sighed. She was more worried about him killing over, then Lily would. James was worrying himself to death, and he was going to be just as exhausted as Lily was going to be when she woke up. She took the blanket she had had on her and wrapped it gently around James, then went back to her room, and fell asleep.

* * *

The four in Meg and Sam's room, woke up to an alarm clock that was in their heads. It's was ten' o'clock exactly, and as one by one they woke up they all slowly and stiffly got up and stretched. When all were half aware of their surroundings they noticed that James was not among them. Sirius sighed.

"That Marauder is going to die before Lily does if he doesn't realize soon that he needs his sleep as much as Lily needs hers."

"Ten to one that he fell asleep with Lily last night after we all dosed off." Sam said smiling lightly. James was a very predictable person.

"Yeah, that poor guy, he was torn up yesterday, when he though Lily was going to almost die. I think out of all of us he would have been the most affected." Remus said while he yawned and stretched.

"Well as soon as Lily waked up I'm gonna kill her." Meg said in a matter-of-fact tone. Which made the others laugh; trust Meg to lighten the mood when things were grim.

"C'mon we better go get to the hospital wing, and drag James to the kitchens. None of us have eaten since yesterday's lunch, and if he doesn't get food into that body of his he's going to pass out." Sam said. The others nodded and they all made there way to the hospital wing.

Sure enough when they got there they saw James asleep next to Lily's bed, holding her hands. He looked exhausted and had bags under his eyes, even in his sleep. Lily looked better then he did, the majority of her color had come back, and she looked like she was very peaceful at the moment. Sirius went over behind James, smiled his evil little smile, and slapped James hard on the back. James popped up, his eyes bulging at the pain that shot through his back. He looked back at Sirius who was avoiding eye contact and whistling and with reflexes faster then Sirius would have guessed for having just woken up James stood up and smacked Sirius hard, then in an instant looked back over at Lily to see how he was doing. The others seeing this laughed, James had it bad that was for sure.

"James c'mon let's go get some food, and then come back up here and eat it." Remus said lightly and gripped James's arm. A grip that clearly left no objection. He looked one last time at Lily then nodded his head, and the five of them walked out to go get something to eat from the kitchens.

A few minutes after they had left Lily slowly opened her eyes, and looked around, she immediately knew that James had been here, because of the fact that the chair was tipped over, which implied that he had slept here and had been woken up very abruptly. She smiled, crawled out of bed, and used the restroom, then came back out to see that professor Dumbledore was sitting next to her bed smiling.

"Good Morning Lily."

"Good Morning Professor." Lily said smiling largely, then climbed into bed knowing that when Madame Anne came back if she was out of bed she was going to be in some serious trouble.

"Feeling rested I hope."

"Yes I'm feeling a lot better then yesterday now that I've rested a little."

"Very good then I would like to talk to you about something. I am offering a class on defense for you and your five friends. And for you a special class to where you can learn to control that special power of yours."

Lily looked thoughtful. "When would it start?"

"Oh we'll give you a week or two to prepare, you'll be given a forewarning, but we're thinking on having the first meeting Friday, does that sound good to you?"

"It sounds wonderful; I'd love to do it."

Dumbledore smiled, then it lessened a little and his face became a little more serious. "Lily, you are going to have to be on your guard from now on. Voldemort now knows that you are a wandless magic user, and he is going to be targeting you. So please watch out for yourself, and no more unplanned trips to Hogwarts."

Lily looked bashful a little but smiled. "Yes professor, I know he'll be looking out for me now. It's just a little sad though."

Dumbledore looked confused for a moment. "What is sad?"

"Well I lost all of my present in the confusion, so I have to wait for the next Hogmead's trip to get all new ones." Lily really did look sad at this.

Professor Dumbledore chuckled and leaned in a little bit. "Actually when you go to your room, you will find that there happen to be a bag or two of presents in the back of your closet."

Lily's smile covered her face. "Thank-you professor!" And then she hugged him, and he lightly hugged her back.

"Now I had better go wake up Madame Anne or I will be in trouble."

Lily laughed and waved goodbye to professor Dumbledore left the room and smiled as Madame Anne came in through the same door a minute or two later. She did a basic check-up over Lily then smiled fondly at the girl; Lily had always been one of her soft spots, James being the other one.

"I'll let you go to the Hospital if-" She said, dimming the just a second ago brightened face of Lily "-if you promise to go to bed early the next few nights and sleep as late as possible without being late to your class. Understood?"

Lily smiled and nodded her head, she was about to say something when the James, Sirius, Remus, Meg and Sam walked through the door, and then immediately rushed to Lily's side seeing that she was awake. Madame Anne didn't even bother to scold, and slowly walked back to her room.

Lily was bombarded with question after question, the majority of them coming from James until she couldn't take it anymore! She could feel a head ache coming on. She put her finger to James's mouth and that quieted them all fast enough.

"I am not going to answer any of your questions till later. One because I am still a little tired, and two because I'm hungry and want to eat." Just as Sirius had grabbed a piece of bacon, and was about to stick it in his mouth Lily snatched it out of his hand and bit into it, a small smile of triumph on her face as she chewed.

Sirius was looking at her eating it then said in an incredulous voice. "You stole my piece of bacon!" Lily laughed at the comment, and with her laugh the worries of the day before began to ebb away slowly but surely.

* * *

The six had gone through the week, without little occurrence. The boys each got a detention, but there was noting abnormal about that, most of the teachers didn't even think that it was much of a punishment for them now anyways. Today was Friday and in a few minutes the class of self defense was about to begin. They were all excited and yet they all knew that Lily was the most excited of them. She always wanted to know how to control her power, but she had never told anyone about it and she wasn't sure it would have been a good idea. It only meant that Lily would have been found out sooner by Voldemort. The six were sitting at a table the only thing in a room when professor Dumbledore and McGonagall entered and smiled at them.

"You six are going to be training in the arts of defense, where you will learn to defend yourselves, and someone else. We will start by reviewing most of the things, and until graduation we will increase your knowledge of the spells, adding new one's there."

"This is not a course to be taken lightly or for showing off, it is going to be hard work, and difficult many times. Should you choose to leave, then that is you're choice, it is not a bad thing." Professor McGonagall said picking up off of where Dumbledore had left off.

When they both saw that no one was making even the slightest move for the door, and that even the emotions on the faces and in their eyes told them that they began. It was for the first thirty minutes of the hourly class a review, they tried it out on themselves choosing partners. James and Sirius paired up Meg and Lily, and Sam and Remus. Then the last fifteen minutes Dumbledore asked them to stop and beckoned Lily to come towards him. Lily along with the defense class would have a thirty minute class every Sunday with Dumbledore and McGonagall, learning how to harness her power.

Okay you five, and professor McGonagall. I would like you to move away from each other with sufficient distance from both your neighbor and the wall. Good." He said as they did so looking confused. "Now Lily here is what I was you to do. Put your hand in a ball to where the tips of you fingers are touching each other." He demonstrated with his own hands then nodded as Lily did the same thing. "Good not in this ball I want you to throw your power in, as the power grows, I want you to expand you hands, but try to keep your power in a ball shaped form, when you feel that your power has added enough, and trust me you will know when the time is right, I want you to clap your hands together, sending out your power."

Dumbledore backed up into a space, with distance from everyone else. "But remember, your power is an echo of your thoughts. Make sure your thoughts know that this is not to hurt anyone but to push them, make them tip over if possible."

Lily nodded nervously then looked at her hands, she felt kind of silly, but she felt encouragement in the atmosphere of the room. Slowly concentrating with all her will she felt some deep sense of power inside her as if it was like a well in her heart. She called forth that power, thoughts going through her head, all about how this was not to hurt them. She slowly went rigid and the light that always surrounded her began to glow growing stronger. A ball of light formed in her hands and as she felt the power grow she expanded her hands making sure the power stayed in a ball form. She felt when it was time to release it instantly, it was as if something chimed in her mind, like a large gong, and she clapped her hands together sending a wave of power throughout the room.

Dumbledore and McGonagall were pushed back, and the other five were actually tipped over, but the real accomplishment in Lily's eyes, was that no one was hurt. She smiled, a sense of overwhelming happiness entering her heart, and another good thing was that she wasn't feeling all that tired. She realized that the times she felt exhausted was when she used the power recklessly. With the help of Dumbledore and McGonagall she learned a few new tricks, and all six of them were greatly disappointed when the two professors' told them that it was time that the lesson ended, but they never the less, nodded and made there way out of the room.

"Let's go outside a little and walk around before curfew comes around." Lily said smiling. The others nodded their heads in agreement.

They were all heading towards the lake, when Lily who was in the middle felt a presence in the darkness of the shadow. Her smile left her face and she slowed down to where eventually she stopped completely, the other looking at her strangely as she looked in to a patch of shadows. They walked up behind her and was about to say something till she beat it to them. She took a single step forward stopped again and said a single word that made the hearts' of the other five turn stone cold.

"Tom!"

Out of that patch of shadows came a looming figure, which they all knew to be the looming figure of Voldemort!

* * *

A/N- MUHAHAHAHAHAHA I have left you at a cliff hanger, aren't I mean  I want to thank everyone for reading the chapter, and hope you liked it, a little more serious then the other chapters. But oh well. Thanx to all of my reviewers.

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I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can. Thanx again  
_Maddie._


	15. defiance and anger

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Fifteen-

* * *

"Hello Lily my dear!" Replied Voldemort in a voice which made everyone know he was smirking underneath his cloak.

As he said those words the large rain clouds above them let down there load, the first drop hitting Lily on the cheek. Lily ignored it though keeping all of her attention on Voldemort, and soon it was raining heavily, a huge downpour. Within two minutes, which no one spoke in the six figures too tense or shocked to say anything, everyone was thoroughly soaked. The five looked at Lily to see that she was still rigid, but there was a large amount of fear in her eyes, that went beyond the normal person's extent of fear. She sidestepped, her eyes never leaving him, away from the others a little and finally broke the spell.

"What do you want?" She said it calmly, no evidence what so ever in her voice of the fear in her eyes.

"Come now Lily, must you act so cruel?"

"Save your breath Tom, it's the only thing that is keeping you alive!" Lily said defiance flashing on her face.

"Be at peace Lily, I've just come to talk, not to take action."

"Well I don't want to talk to you, so shove off!"

"There's no need for that!" there was actually a hint of anger in his voice but only a slight one that only James, Lily, and Sam caught. "I've come to make a preposition."

"I'm not interested." Lily said in a matter of fact tone.

"Well wither way your going to hear it!" He snapped making everyone step back except James and Lily.

"Now Lily, I would like to give you the chance to join me. You will be in my top spot of course, and treated better then anyone else I assure you. Plus your talents will be put to use, and a very good one at that. What do you say?"

"I told you already I'm not interested, and there no way on earth, heaven or Hell that your going to get me on your side." Lily spat out at him.

The others looked at her amazed, they had never, not once, heard Lily cuss before. And they weren't quite sure if they liked it or not. They looked over at Voldemort to see that he was a little more rigid then he had been when he came into the open area to talk.

"Fine, but is there no way you will reconsider it." Voldemort asked testily.

"No, and I hope you go to Hell for what your doing. Because there's no way you're going to heaven."

"Fine, and to show you my good will I won't kill you, instead I'll make you suffer more and kill your friends." Voldemort said hissing out the words, and his red eyes blazing out from the hood. He was truly angry this time.

"You will not touch them!" Lily said in anger, the fear now slowly leaving her face, being consumed by the anger.

Tom raised his wand and screamed at the group of five. "Avada Kedavra!"

Lily's eyes bulged out and before she knew it, she raised her hand and had put up a shield in front of the five drawing from the power in her as she had been taught in the lesson earlier. To say that Voldemort was not shocked would be a lie he just didn't show it.

"I said you will not touch them and you will not get me to be on your side!" Lily screamed at him, the fear gone, her eyes blazing like a fire and the light surrounding her growing stronger and brighter with her anger.

"I see you have learned a lot in your lessons that no doubt Dumbledore himself is giving you." Voldemort spat.

"You wanna know the funny thing Tom?" Lily said in a voice mixed with actual amusement, anger and a bit of bitterness. "Is that I've only had one lesson, and haven't even began to touch my real power."

This news did shock him as he stepped back a pace and in an astonished and disbelieving voice he finally spoke again. "What?"

"That's right Tom." Lily said still keeping the shield in front of her friends. "And now you're gonna leave one way or another."

And with her free hand Lily went into the well of her power and shot out energy, and it coursed stronger then it ever had before. As it hit him, he was blown ten feet into the air, and another ten feet away from the group. As he slowly got up he looked over at Lily.

"That was your last chance Lily."

"No Tom, there was never a chance, you were just a fool who thought he might be able to change my path. And you are a fool to still keep trying."

You could see the anger radiating from him and with a swish of the cloak on his back he turned and ran into the forest. Lily waited a while before she let down both of her hands, and before the light actually went away. By this time Lily began to sag a little and her breathing became uneven and rough. Her hair was n ringlets around her, clumped together from the rain that was still coming down hard. She continued to stare at the place where Tom had been and then as if coming out of a trance she turned and looked at her friends who were now staring at her.

"I have to go!" and before the others could react she whipped around and ran as fast as she could to the Hogwarts main entrance.

Meg and Sam both began to go after her, Sirius and Remus about to follow them, when they were stopped by the voice of James.

"Let her go." He said it quietly almost to the point where no one could hear him but it was what the words were that the group heard them.

"James what do you mean let her go?" Sam asked

"She just had a duel with Voldemort!" Meg walked up to him yelling in his face.

"You think I don't know that." James said exasperated. "But she gonna wanna be alone, and you need to know the whole story before you go after her." James said running a hand through his head, as if it was tearing him up apart to just stand there and not go after her himself.

"What do you mean the whole story?" Sirius asked calmly, which astounded the girls. They didn't understand how they could be so calm and they could be so wired.

"Didn't you notice, that the fear Lily had in her eyes went deeper then the average person meeting their doom kind of thing?" James asked tiredly as, not even caring, he sank down into the mud.

"Yeah I noticed that there was something the way her fear was, the way she talked to Voldemort and the way Voldemort talked to her." Remus said sitting down next to James followed by the others.

"It was if they knew each other, more then the whole victim, murderer thing." Sam said after Remus.

"It's the reason though." James said.

"What do you mean? What's the reason?" Meg asked confused, as the others looked.

"The reason they talked like that was because they know each other."

"What." They all said it at the same time though not intentionally.

"Voldemort is cousins with Lily." James said after he looked around making sure there was no one around.

No one talked for a while, the gravity of what had just been said was amazing and almost to the point of unbearable.

"That would explain about Voldemort offering her the best spot of honor." Sam said quietly breaking the silence.

"But why didn't she tell us!" Meg said loudly in frustration, she actually looked hurt for a second. "I mean were her best friends aren't we?" Meg finished in a quieter voice.

"Meg it's not you, I don't think she wanted anyone to know."

"But you know!"

"And it's only by a miracle that I know!" snapped James losing his patience for a minute. But that outburst hit more then just Meg, it hit everyone a little.

"What do you mean?" Sirius said finally speaking.

"She probably wouldn't have told me. The only reason I know, is because I found her talking to someone in the hallway, someone completely cloaked. I didn't recognize him, until I asked her. She hesitated a lot, but finally told me that it was Tom Riddle. I made her tell me the story and that's the only reason that I know." James said quietly.

"But why not tell at least you?" Remus asked.

"Because, she was afraid of what we would think. You know that if anyone else knew about this they would think she was a spy and that she was in with Voldemort. We all know that Lily hates to be any center of attention."

"I suppose that makes sense." Meg said "But now that we know I want to go find her, I'm worried about her."

"I think it's enough time." James said getting up.

"Enough time for what?" Sirius asked as he and the others got up.

"For her to be alone or pass out." James said, and then he took some parchment out of his pocket and smiled at the others. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

And sure enough it showed that Lily was in a corridor just standing in the same spot, or maybe sitting. They walked quickly to where it said she was and saw that she was leaning against a wall almost asleep. The good news was that she wasn't as pale as she had been when she had used her power in Hogsmeade. James was the first to reach her. He gently shaked her until she peeled open her eyes.

"Hey sleeping beauty." He said quietly.

She blinked her eyes glanced around her then looked up at the others then back to James. "Where an I?"

"You're in a hallway, where you more then likely passed out." James said. "Can you stand?"

"I think so." With the help of James, and Sirius who came to stand next to James, she got to her feet and stood there swaying a little.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Meg asked coming up a concerned look on her face.

"I'm sure." Lily said laughing a little then hugged her and Sam who came up next to Meg. She then hugged Remus, Sirius and lastly James, who she stayed with. I think that if she had pulled away James wouldn't have allowed it.

"Come on; let's get you to the heads dormitory."

"Okay." They all went there and the other four after making sure that they would get together and go tell Dumbledore in the morning they left off to their own dormitories.

After both Lily and James had taken showers, Lily finishing before James she crawled into her bed, but sat up knowing she wouldn't be able to sleep at all. Finally when she heard James get out of the shower Lily made a decision. He came in to give her a goodnight kiss, something they had started recently and as he was about to leave again she called out to him.

"James?"

"What's wrong Lily?"

"Can you sleep with me tonight?"

"What?" He asked reeling back in a little shock, but stopped when he saw tears coming to her eyes. James had only seen Lily cry three other time, and that was the time that her aunt died, they found her defying gravity and the time he had found her with Tom. He had never seen someone as brave as Lily.

"I don't want to be alone tonight. I didn't know what you felt like when you saw me almost die, but when I saw him shoot out that curse and the thought that you might die, it really scared me." She said, a small tear making its way down her cheek.

"Okay let me go get my pillow."

"Really?" She said it in a voice that said that she wasn't sure if he was going to have said yes.

"Really." He said he came over her kissed her again then quickly went and got his pillow.

She scooted over and he crawled in. He watched as Lily said goodnight to Harry her owl, and Ella her dragon, who crooned a little at Lily's touch then went back to sleep. Then Lily fell asleep in the arm of James who turned off the lights and made a tighter grip on her as he too drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The next day the others waited where they were supposed to meet to go talk to Dumbledore and sighed as they all glanced at their watched again. They were thirty minutes late and finally Meg and Sirius couldn't take it anymore.

Not even looking back to see if Sam and Remus were following them they walked off. They knew anyway that the two would follow them. They said the password to the portrait and walked over to James room; because he was the one they were gonna yell at to see that it was empty. They all looked at each other confused, and walked over to Lily's room. Sam opened it and quickly shushed the others as they all looked in. they smiled at each other. Lily's head had left her pillow sometime during the night and was now on James's chest, and his arm was slung around her and both were dead to the world. In fact James looked almost as bad as Lily did.

"Let's let them sleep. We can tell Dumbledore the whole thing without the two." Sam said closing the door quietly.

The others nodded in agreement, and walked back to the headmaster's office and told him the whole story, leaving out the embellishment, and other things that were not necessary. He nodded quietly throughout the story and smiled at the four.

"Thank-you for telling me all of this. It means that we will have to take extra precautions why don't you go get something to eat, then go wake up your friends and relax and have fun this day, you deserve it." Professor Dumbledore said smiling and ushered them out. Then as they left his jolly face turned the complete opposite. This matter was more serious, if Voldemort could get into the grounds so easily, it must mean that there's someone who's a very distinguished member of his here, or someone who already knows Lily's secret of her relationship with Tom.

* * *

A/N- Hey I hope you liked the chapter, I am so sorry it took me a while to update. And also check out my bio for info on how I update, in case you want to know when next I'll be updating one of my stories, it's under the IMPORTANT word: D. anyways thanx to all of my reviewers.

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Thanx again hope you liked it!

_-Maddie-_


	16. the second christmas

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Fifteen-

* * *

Lily woke to the warmth around her but also to a harder pillow then she was used to and as her senses came forward she realized that the pillow also moved up and down. She peeled open her eyes and found herself in the arms of James who was breathing steadily and was smiling in his sleep. Lily really didn't want to get up and away from James because the events of last night were still left in her mind and also by the fact that her body protested any movement unless necessary. So she snuggled closer to James and drifted off back to sleep. In fact they both slept another hour but instead of Lily waking up this time it was James. He began to stretch but stopped as he felt someone laying party on his chest and when he finally coaxed his eyes open he looked down to see the sleeping figure of Lily who had hugged him in her second sleep. He smiled fondly down at her but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't get back to sleep.

He really hadn't tried to make too much movement and noise but he made a little and Lily woke up. He watched as she peeled her eyes open and moved a little but groaned in protest. That's when she finally looked up and noticed that James was awake. She smiled up at him but only snuggled a little closer.

"Good morning." He said when he was sure it was safe to talk to her. He had talked to her once right when she had woken up and all he got in response was a series of mumbles and groans.

She yawned big and smiled. "Good morning."

"How are you feeling?"

"Like I went through a vigorous exercise routine and that every bone in my body hates me and doesn't want me to move." She said laughing now as James laughed too. "How about you?"

"Pretty good, I'm surprised I don't have a cold with all of us standing outside in the rain."

They didn't really say anything more but James knew by the look on Lily's face that something was bothering her and she wasn't sure how she was going to actually say it. "What's on your mind?"

Lily jumped and looked up at him smiling slightly. "Do they know?" She asked quietly and although it was a vague question James knew what she was asking.

"I told them after you ran off, because I felt they needed to know the whole truth."

"And what was their opinion about it?" She asked in an even quieter voice then the one before it.

"They were shocked that's for sure. But then so was I when I first found out. But don't worry Lily they're not going to judge you because of the fact that you have sucky relatives. They're you friends and nothings going to change that."

"Thanks James. Oh my gosh what time is it, weren't we supposed to meet the others?"

"Aw crap! It's twelve we were supposed to be their and hour and a half ago." They both slowly got up, despite their protesting limbs and grabbed some clothes and quickly changed.

They ran to Dumbledore's office and found that no one was there so they went to the next place that they knew they would probably be, the Great Hall since it was lunch time. And sure enough they were sitting down in the corner they always sat at and were laughing their heads off, with the exception of Sirius who looked completely lost. This meant that they were laughing at him. Lily and James smiled and walked hand in hand over to them but they only got to the halfway to find that they were spotted and the whole group ran towards them and engulfed them in a hug. Most were making sure that Lily was okay and she was laughing at their antics.

"I'm not okay." Lily said trying not to smile as everyone including James looked at her. But James knew she was so he didn't say anything as the others crowded around her even more asking her what was wrong over and over and over.

"Lily tell me what's wrong." Meg said quieting the others.

"Well if you must know, I'm hungry and you're blocking the food."

They didn't know what to say because they were just too dumb-founded. James though wasn't too surprised he burst out laughing soon followed by Lily and they were holding on each other to stand upright. The other four finally got back to their senses and stared at her trying to decide if they wanted to be angry with her or laugh with her. Lily seeing this lowered her head just a little and looked up at them with big puppy dog eyes. James seeing this laughed harder, and Lily could barley keep a straight face while doing it. The others finally caved in and grabbed her and sat down at the table.

"So Lily you're really okay?" Sam asked after they had eaten a little.

"I'm really okay, just sore that's all. How about you guys?" She said as she looked at their skeptical faces.

"We're all doing good actually we went and checked on you this morning. You two were soooo cute." Meg said laughing as Lily just shrugged.

"It was a comfortable position." She said not blushing and James smiled.

"I had no complaints."

They all burst out laughing and smiling, Sirius though was choking because he had tried to laugh, chew, swallow, and breathe all at the same time, and although he was talented he just wasn't that talented. Lily knew by the look in every single persons eye is that they knew and just as James had said they weren't treating her any differently. And Lily's smile grew bigger and had more meaning then any other smile she had had, and if the others noticed they didn't say anything. They were interrupted by the sound of Owls coming and mail time. Lily looked up knowing Harry would come just to eat but found that he came with another owl. Both owls landed in front of her and she looked at them questionably she petted both of them and gave them some bread then peeled off the small little envelope she watched as the bird took off and sailed away. She gave Harry some more treats and everyone else's owls since they all came to her and then looked at the envelope trying to figure out what was in it.

"Lily what is it?"James asked as he watched her examine it.

"I don't remember." She said laughing and slowly peeled it open. They watched as she barley got a look inside of it then squeaked, literally, and slammed it back to her chest looking at all of them to make sure they hadn't seen. Any by the way they looked at her curiously they hadn't. "I think I need to go to my room."

They all looked at her concerned but stopped because she looked too eager and happy to have something wrong with what was in the envelope. She got up but stopped and turned back around looking at them.

"Meg, Sam, can you join me?" The both looked at her curiously but just shrugged their shoulders and got up to follow her.

"Wait a second Lily, what is that?" James asked still looking a little uneasy.

"Just your Christmas present." And at the words 'Christmas Present' the two girls perked up and looked almost as eager as Lily did.

"Oh I see you get me a crappy card." James said trying not to smile.

Lily bent down and kissed him then said. "Well if you don't like it you can always send it back." And then she and the girls were running out of the Great Hall, and towards Meg and Sam's room instead if the heads dormitory. When they reached it they were all out of breath but all were looking excited.

"Okay Lily, are you going to tell us what it is?" Meg said the eagerness in her voice.

"Yeah I thought you said you weren't going to tell us until Christmas Eve?" Sam said as they sat down on bean bag chairs.

"Well I changed my mind. No you can not tell Sirius, because he has a big mouth, and let's just keep it from Remus too. If you tell anyone I'll hunt you down and throttle you in your sleep. Understood?"

"Understood." They said at the same time.

"Good now this is my gift for James."

Lily handed them the envelope and watched as their faces took on this unbelievable look and they looked back up at Lily stunned. In fact they were so stunned they couldn't talk for a while.

"Oh My Gosh Lily! James is gonna love this." Meg said when she finally found her voice.

"Yeah Lily, this amazing." Sam said as she too found her voice.

"Thanks, so you won't tell anyone?" She asked looking at them questionably.

"No way Lily."

"Thanks, can I keep it in here?"

"Sure but where? Everywhere we could put it the boys could look for it." Meg said looking around.

"Not necessarily. I though you would have found it by now." Lily walked over to the center of the room exactly underneath the light and bent down, thumped twice on the ground and a small compartment came up from the ground. The others looked at her stunned. She placed it in their and thumped twice again and watched as it went back into the ground.

"When did you discover that Lily?" Sam asked.

"I made it."

"You made it?" Meg asked surprised.

"Yeah in my second year. I was experimenting with some things and accidentally created it. Just don't tell the guys it'll be the girls secret." She smiled and they agreed. "Listen I have to go talk to Dumbledore but I'll see you guys later."

They split up in the hallway and Lily walked to professor Dumbledore's office and said the password then knocked politely on the door. It opened a few seconds later to the cheerful face of Professor Dumbledore.

"Ah, Lily so good of you to drop by, please come in. I hope you are feeling better?" He asked the last part as she sat down.

"Yes professor, actually I came to ask a favor."

"Ask away, but first Lemon Drop?" He offered her one and she gladly accepted.

"Well you see professor, James's Christmas gift is something that takes places away from Hogwarts and well…" Lily didn't know how to continue.

"Ah yes I've heard what you have gotten him."

Lily looked up at him startled. "You do?"

"Yes you see I am good friends with the postmaster, and he tells me if anything odd pops up. And your gift did. You may leave the premises that day. And spend the night in a certain place that I will choose out for you."

A large smile broke out over Lily's face and she ran around and gave him a hug. "Thank-you professor Dumbledore so much." She said and then she ran out ecstatic leaving professor Dumbledore to chuckle to himself. She sure was an energetic seventeen year old.

* * *

Lily over the next three weeks till Christmas Break was hounded by the marauder all three of them dying to know what James's gift was but she continued to just shake her head no and laugh. I think it was the fact that the girls had come back and looked so shocked and thrilled that had made them all so anxious. Christmas break had let up a week ago, and it was Christmas Eve night. They were all hanging out in the Girls room since that where they had last year and they would like to do that this year. They were laughing throwing popcorn at each other. James and Sirius had gotten into a popcorn stuffing contest much to the amusement of the other four who got them to laugh causing them to choke and such things. They had spent the day in snowball fights, ice skating, and other such things and all were thoroughly spent by now but still hung out.

In fact it was Lily, Sam, and Meg that fell asleep first and the boys looking at them smiled fondly and they too drifted off to sleep. And every single one of them woke early the next morning. Actually it was the guys who did it and they wanted to get started because they were dying to know what James's present was. The girls groaned but never the less sat up tiredly and looked up around the boys. Meg threw them some nasty comments under her breathe, and Sam who was sort of a morning person just shrugged it and got ready to open her presents.

"Wait we have to do it one at a time like last year." Lily said as she finally got towards her presents.

The boys looked highly disappointed but never the less agreed. Meg was to be first, followed by Sirius, Sam, Remus, Lily, and then James. James shot them all a dirty glare when he heard where he was in the order of things but he really didn't have a choice but to accept and they watched as they ripped open the present they were given.

Meg got a few things from her parents a Fairy tales book from Remus, A photo album from Lily and Sam combined, a jewelry box from James, who had help picking it out. And from Sirius she opened it and gasped. It was a beautiful Globe with fake snow falling constantly in the middle and inside was a figurine of a prince and princess and it played a little melody. Meg couldn't stop smiling and couldn't stop thanking them all. She thanked Sirius though with a kiss.

Sirius didn't get nearly as much stuff from his admirers as he did last year, and I think it was because he's taken, and the fact Meg would have killed some of them. He did get a few from his parents and one from James's Parents. Lily got him a gift certificate to Zonko's with a lot of money behind it but she waved off any thanks saying it was Christmas. James got him a manly necklace that had a shaggy dog on it, and Remus got him a package of bouncy balls, which he proceeded to open up and throw some around like a little kid. Sam got him a ton of different kinds of Candy some he had never heard of and last came Megs present. When he opened it up he was shocked. Inside was an invisibility cloak. He could barley get the words thank-you out, and proceeded to practically make out with her if they all hadn't cleared their throat at the same time.

Sam got some from her parents and a few from some pen pals she had across the world. Lily got her a book of quotes that had the last pages or so empty. Not only did Sam love quotes she also had a ton of them she made up herself or that you couldn't find in books. James got her two posters of Peter Pan which was her favorite movie, she was a huge Fan of Tinker Bell, though not Wendy. She kept saying she was too whiny. Sirius got her a gift card to the book store since he wasn't that good with gifts, but she loved it. Meg got her a lamp that glowed purple and wiggles and moves. She named it wiggles since that what it did. The others just laughed at her. Then came Remus's gift she unwrapped a small little box that had a bow around it. When she finally got the bow undone she opened the box and looked at the thing inside amazed. In it was a silver locket and on it etched in it was the words 'I Love You' she opened the locket to see a picture of her smiling largely, and a picture of him. She actually started crying and wouldn't stop hugging and kissing him, much the small embarrassment of him. She clung close to him even when he was opening his own presents.

Remus was Like Sirius he got some from his parents but also James's parents since both just about lived there the majority of the summer. Lily got him a new camera, because his was old and it showed it. James got him a book of philosophy, Remus liked those kind of things, trying to figure out the meaning of things that most people didn't even think of in the beginning. Sirius got him a memory ball. It stored memories and played them back to you, he was really happy about that and couldn't wait to start. Meg got him a squishy pillow that would never break, rip, or get any damage to it. To test his theory he smacked Sirius hard then laughed at the results. And last he went for Sam's gift. It was a small little package and inside the package was a note reading.

'I owe you a dinner for two, with a surprise right after.'

He smiled at this and told her she better get ready for it. Then they kissed once and looked over at Lily whose turn it was.

Lily got gifts from the Potters too and smiled at them, a small lump in her throat when one from her aunt didn't come but she didn't let anyone else see it. Lily picked up Sirius's first and found a gift certificate to the book store and laughed as he just shrugged his shoulders as if saying, what do you expect from me? Meg got her a pair of crystal Lily earrings. She thanked Meg enthusiastically. Sam got her two thick journals and a book on advanced charms, a lot of these she had never seen and was just itching to try them out. By the glint in her eye when she glanced at some of these then at James and Sirius, she already knew who would be her test subjects and both of them looked at her in horror. Remus's was a large container and when she opened it up it was a container of every single kind of gum on the planet, some of which she had never heard of let alone knew existed. And last came James's. It was a small box and inside it was barley a smaller box, but the design was constantly shifting and never the same thing. She looked at it confused then smiled as she realized what it was. It was an illusion box. What you did was she would put both of the hands on the box, and it would transport you and whoever touched you into the box where you could be anywhere you wanted whether it is a real place or not. And when you wanted to go home she just had to think she was ready and it would take them back.

"Thank-you so much James." She said and kissed him still looking at it. Apparently the others didn't know what it was though and looked at her confused. "Okay guys put your hands on my shoulder or somewhere as long as you're touching me. I'll show you what it is."

They all did so, and Lily sat there for a minute trying to decide where to go when she figured it out. She placed both of her hands on it and then they were no longer in Lily's room but they were in the middle of space in the middle of a galaxy. Everyone gasped but Lily who began to dance around even though it looked like she was standing on nothing. They stayed there for a few minutes and then she wished she was back in the room and all six of them blinked to find them exactly where they were.

They were all amazed and talked about it but it didn't last long. James was too impatient to see what his gifts were, and now Remus and Sirius were too. Now was the day they would finally find out what Lily's gift was.

James opened his gift from his Parents first then moved on to the others. Sirius had got him three of his favorite Cd's and he immediately put one on much to the amusement of the others. Sam got him a poster of his favorite band and some candy since she had no idea what to get him, but he was happy with that. Meg got him a galaxy orb if you pressed a button the stars popped out and you could look anywhere in the galaxy. He thanked Meg enthusiastically. Remus got him a vile of healing potion, he looked at him questionably.

"All I'm saying is that you and Lily tend to get hurt a lot, it looked useful." He said shrugging his shoulders making everyone laugh.

James then looked around but saw no other gift and looked at Lily suspiciously. "Okay Lily now where's your gift?" He was followed by nods of the heads from Remus and Sirius.

"Right here." She pulled out a green card and smiled. "I just wanted to make sure it was the last one you opened."

She handed it to him and opened it to find a card and a smaller card. He opened the card and read these words aloud. 'I just wanted to let you know that I love you, and everything's taken care of.' He looked at the last part curiously put picked up the smaller card and inside it the present made his heart skip a beat.

"Oh My God Lily!" He couldn't say anymore and the girls and Lily smiled largely. Finally he got his voice back. "Lily these are Quidditch World Cup tickets!" He said amazed.

Sirius's jaw dropped wide open and snatched the card out of James's hand and looked at the shiny tickets. "These are like the best seats!" Sirius said looking at it closely.

"Do you want to throw it away now?" Lily asked James teasing him.

"No Way." He said and ripped the tickets back from Sirius. "But Lily it's too much."

"No it's not."

"I don't know what to say."

"Then don't say anything, the fact that you like it is more then enough thanksfor me." Lily said smiling. "Don't worry everything's set up, the hotel when we leave and when we get back." She said smiling larger at all the guy's stunned faces.

James still didn't know what to say, so instead he leaned over cupped her face and kissed her. When they broke apart she grabbed his hand and smiled her knowing little smile.

By far this Christmas surpassed the last one by ten times.

* * *

A/N- Sorry it took me so long to get this next chapter up, I hope you liked it a lot. Thanx to all of my reviewers

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Again thanx so much and hope you liked the chapter!  
-_Maddie_-


	17. quidditch world cup

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Seventeen-

* * *

Lily and James were in Professor Dumbledore's office saying goodbye to their friends, and getting ready to go to the hotel that was near the field where the Quidditch world pitch would be. Both of them had a small duffle bag carrying their extra money and a pair of over night clothes. Professor Dumbledore would be here in five minutes to tell them the name of the place that they would be staying in. They had just finished hugging each other when he entered and smiled at the two. 

"You're sure that the two of you have all the things you need?" he asked peering at them from the top of his spectacles.

"Yes professor." They said at the same time smiling.

"Very well, the name of the place to which you will be staying is Pint's Hotel, he is a good friend of mine, and his place is extremely well looked after."

"Thank-you professor, so very much!" Lily said smiling happily.

She took a small pinch of floo powder and stepped into the fire place and in a clear voice called out the Hotel name. James followed, and with the same clear voice, he too was whisked away. Lily who had just gotten up from the ground was sitting flat on her butt yet again as James came crashing into her. Several people in the common room like area chuckled at the two, and two of them actually came and helped them stand up, chuckling all the while. All of them Lily noticed were wearing colors of their favorite teams but there were no quarrels that seemed to have broken out so far, since all of the valuables and furniture were still in one piece. A cheerful looking man walked up to them, having finished a conversation.

"Might you be Ms. Evans and Mr. Potter?" He shook both their hands, even though he wasn't sure that they were the actual two.

"Yes sir we are." James replied as Lily continued to finish brushing herself off.

"Oh good, I was expecting you soon, I'll show you two to your rooms. Is this all the things you brought?" He inclined his head to their duffle bags.

"Yes sir." Lily nodded. "We'll be leaving tomorrow to go back to school. It was part of the agreement I made with professor Dumbledore." Lily said as they began to head up the stairs following him now.

"Good fellow that Dumbledore is he's one of my best customers whenever he finds himself in the area. He's also been a good friend." He showed them to two room's right next to each other, and said that dinner would begin at six and that if they needed anything that they were only to come downstairs and ask. He then hobbled away.

Lily took the one on the left and James the one on the right; it was a fairly small room with a dresser bed, and wardrobe. Across from the main entrance door was a smaller one that led to a bath room. She plunked her stuff down on the bed and glanced around. She didn't really have anything that she needed to put up and she sort of felt bored. Professor Dumbledore the day before had called them both into his office giving them specific instructions that they were not to wander into the human side of the world, since the Pint's hotel was like the leaky cauldron in Diagon alley. It was a connecting point for the wizarding world. Lily heard a knock on the door and knowing it was James yelled out to him.

"It's open."

James walked in and noticed her sitting on the bed he came and sat down next to her. "Have I told you how happy I am about this present?" He asked as he moved her over to where she was sitting in front of him and he had engulfed her in a hug from behind. Lily smiled.

"Only about a million times, I'm beginning to think that that's the only reason you love me, because I get you such wonderful presents." She said trying to sound dejected a little but failing miserably at it.

"Oh now that's just cruel." He said as she laughed. "You know I love you for a lot of other reasons, you also help me with my homework." He said in a matter of fact tone, making her gasp in disbelief and try to get up only he wouldn't let her. He only hugged her tighter and she eventually gave up her resistance and snuggled back into him.

"I'm really glad you like the present though James, it was so hard finding a gift for you." She said as she continued to lean into him.

"Yeah well you should have known anything that you get me I would have loved, even if I didn't like the thing in particular, it would have been awesome because you got it for me. And it was the same for you; I had an awful time finding something for you, that's why we were late that day."

"Yeah well I liked what you got me, in face I take it with me every where I go, just in case one of my classes, especially potions, gets too boring." She laughed as he made a disbelieving sound.

"Well what do you say we go scrounge up something to eat before supper, a snack?" He quirked up his eyebrows making her laugh again.

"You're on." Just before they stepped outside of her doorway he kissed her lightly on the lips and then made their way down into the common room where many of the people were already there sitting and talking about what was the most likely out come of what the game was going to be.

* * *

James and Lily were sitting at a table for two when six came around and they were served what was for dinner, having ordered a few minutes earlier. The cheery man who had greeted them, the one who was friends with Dumbledore was the one who brought out their food. Before he could leave Lily shot out her arm to stop him. 

"Excuse me, but when the game starts how are we to get to it?" she asked politely.

"Oh well all of you who are staying for the game will be going in a group, those from the outside who are arriving today too will be coming through my place, so don't worry you'll know when it's tome to leave."

"Thank-you." She said and turned back to James as he walked away. "Have you ever been to one of these before?" She asked as they started in on their food.

"Yeah me and my dad went once, just the two of us, mom was never big into the whole Quidditch thing, but I was really little, five or six so I only remember a few snit-bits of it."

"I never went to one before; I'm not all that interested in the whole Quidditch thing like your mom. Only I don't mind going to a game or two but I'm not obsessed like you and Sirius are, thankfully Remus is sane enough not to be an obsessive freak." She said a considerate look appearing on her face.

"I resent that you know." James said but laughed all the same.

"I think that was the whole point of me saying it." She said laughing along side of James.

They finished their dinner talking about this and that, James described some of the teams backgrounds for her, and mostly how it was probably going to be like. And unknown to James, Lily had a small book shrunk inside of her pocket, so if things got too boring for her she would be able to occupy herself while James enjoyed his present. A large gong was suddenly heard throughout the entire building, and probably in the whole vicinity, telling everyone that it was time to head to the arena. James and Lily stood up along with the other members of the Hotel that were going to go and see the match. James gripped Lily's hand hard so as to make sure he didn't lose her in the throng of the crowd. They let the tide of the crowd take them, and then stared in wonder at the sight of the stadium; it was enormous, like a beacon of light. And it was several times larger then the one back at Hogwarts. They abruptly came to a halt as the men standing in front of the stadium checked every single person for their ticket, and made sure there were no copies among them.

James suddenly looked frantic and began to search among his many pockets and then looked over in horror at Lily, but before he could say a word she held up both of their tickets and smiled smugly.

"Honestly James, you worry too much, you need to lighten up a little." She said laughing as they reached the clerk to their entrance and he took the tickets from Lily, and checked them to make sure they weren't copies. He then instructed them as to where their seats were and waved them through.

Lily hadn't gotten seats near the top, one's that were really good and it suddenly dawned on James just how much they must have cost her. Okay granted he heard everyone else saying how much they had to pay to get seats on the crappiest parts, and as they walked higher and higher up the prices increased. He glanced up at Lily but she was glancing around in wonder, not even paying attention to the talk among the people. He decided not to mention it, and by the time they actually reached their seats both were gasping a little for breath since they had to climb up so high. They were in a small section that had eight seats in a group, there were these ranging from all over the place. The ones next to them had yet to be filled and they sat talking amongst each other. They were soon filled though and while Lily was looking around he heard how much it cost them, apparently they were good friends, and he looked over at Lily in Horror.

"Lily?" He was almost afraid to ask if that was how much she had paid to get it. When she glanced over at him curiously he continued. "How much did you actually pay for this sort of thing?" He was truly worried.

Lily only smiled. "No way James, you're not going to get me to tell you how much I paid, if you're a good boy I might tell you later, but not now."

He glared at her but before he could reply to what she said a loud blast somewhat like they had heard earlier sounded and the stadium was instantly in a hush waiting for the commentator to begin to speak. And it didn't take him to long to get to it.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN WELCOME TO THIS YEARS QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP MATCH!" Cheers of approval burst through every part of the stadium, especially from the die hard fans that were everywhere wearing the colors of their teams. "MAY I INTRODUCE TO YOU THE CHUDLEY CANNONS! CHASERS BRANT, KNOX, JONES, KEEPER HEMMINGWAY, BEATERS GREGGS AND PARKS AND SEEKER TOLLS!" The die hard fans erupted at the sound of their teams members and shouted out support with all their lungs, Lily was almost deafened, all of the people around here were Chudley Cannons fans. And those opposed shouted out their insults and boo's. She even noted a fight had broken out, though no one was too surprised over this piece of news. "MAY I ALSO INTRODUCE TO YOU THE MEMBERS OF BULGARIAN BANDITS CHASERS SMITH, LEXINGTON, HARPER, KEEPER ACKLEY, BEATERS HAWKINS AND BATTS, AND SEEKER NORTH!" again the same reaction was followed only the opposite people, and two more fights began and were broken up by security members.

The players who were now on the field were warming up a little passing the quaffle to each other, the beaters hitting the bludgers towards each other. And finally the whistle of the referee sounded and they got into position, the two keeps coming together and shaking hands, with Lily noticed no grudges or anything like what usually occurred when you got any Gryffindor to shake hands with a Slytherin. And then the referee, already mounting up on her broom, blew the whistle and with a quick upward toss threw up the quaffle and the game began. Lily peeked a glance over at James to see his face was rapt with attention like those around her. She smiled her little knowing smile and turned her own attention towards the game. Already a point had been scored.

"SMITH PASSES TO HARPER WHO PASSES TO LEXINGTON, WHO PASSES BACK TO HARPER, THERE THUNDERING DOWN THE FIELD. HARPER LOOKS AS IF HE'S GOING TO MAKE A THROW, BUT NO HE THROWS IT UP MOVES OUT OF THE WAY AS SMITH COMES IN AND DOES A TAIL END SHOT. IT LOOKS AS IF IT'LL GO IN BUT NO HEMMINGWAY MAKES AN EXCELLENT SAVE AND PASSES IT TO TEAMATE KNOX, WHO FLIES IN THE DIRECTION OF THE BANDITS GOALPOSTS."

This went on for some time and Lily tried to hide a yawn, she even sneaked a few chapters in her book, but she didn't want James to think she was bored even though she was, so she would only read a few chapters at a time. Something about how the crowd suddenly became deathly quite made Lily look up.

"TOLLS AND NORTH ARE DIVING HARD, BOTH OF THEM HAVE THE SNITCH IN THEIR SITE BUT WHO'S GOING TO CATCH IT. WITH THIS CLOSE GAME THE BANDITS ARE BEATING THE CANNONS 90 TO 70 SO EITHER CAN WIN. OH NO! THEY'VE COLLIDED AND CRASHED, LUCKY THEY WERE ONLY A FEW FEET ABOVE THE GROUND."

Down below the two seekers who had just crashed were exchanging pleasantries using a variety of colorful words, some that Lily had never even hears, and hanging around Hogwarts you tend to hear a lot. Everyone was peering at them though; to make sure they weren't injured. But both soon got up with the snitch out of sight both headed high up to look again and both shooting each others glares that made the stadium seem a little colder. With their ascent into the sky though breaths of relief filled the stadium and the shouts of encouragement from their teams soon wereyelled again. Even in the few minutes that had passed there was a huge difference in the score. The cannons had popped ahead and now had 140 to 90.

"GREEGS AND PARKS HIT TWO LOVELY BLUDGERS TOWARDS LEXINGTON WHO DROPS THE QUAFFLE. IT'S PICKED UP BY JONES WHO SHOOTS OFF TOWARDS THE BANDITS GOALS. THAT WAS A NARROW ESCAPE!" Jones had almost got hit in the head with a bludgers, and the crowd all gasped. "HE SHOOTS AND HIS ATTEMPT WAS EXCELLENTLY BLOCKED BY ACKLEY WHO HITS THE QUAFFLE TO HARPER. HARPER PASSES IT TO SMITH WHO PASSES IT TO LEXINGTON, NO WAIT BRANT INTERCEPTS AND MAKES FOR THE GOAL, PASSING TO JONES WHO PASSES BACK BRANT SHOOTS AND HE SCORES! THE SCORE IS NOW 150 TO 90 IN FAVOR OF THE CANNONS."

The seekers North and Tolls were still searching the stadium not having any luck at all about finding the snitch. Lily took out her book and read another chapter only vaguely listening to the commentator as he told of Hawkins and Batts making a foul, and how the cannons got two more points by their fouls shooting. As soon as she finished the chapter she once again put the book up and stifled a yawn, James though was practically out of his seat his eyes bugging, like those near him. Lily almost laughed at his expression but managed to muffle it. She suddenly realized why everyone was out of their seats the two seekers wereat it again.

"IT LOOKS AS IF TOLLS AND NORTH HAVE SPOTTED THE SNITCH. THEIR BARELY A HANDS SPAN AWAY FROM EACH OTHER AND BOTH ARE STRAINING. YES THERE IT IS THE SNITCH IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM, BUT WHO'S GOING TO GET IT? EITHER ONE CAN WIN; NO ONE HAS THAT DEFINITE OF AN ADVANTAGE OVER THE OTHER YET. AND THEIR BOTH STRETCHING OUT THEIR ARMS AND YES! TOLLS HAS GOT THE SNITCH, THE CANNONS HAVE WON THE WORLD QUIDDITCH CUP!"

Cheers and yells of approval along with the groans of disappointment were heard throughout the entire arena. The two opposing teams came up and shook hands with one another, the two seekers actually hugged one another, James told Lily is because they're actually really good fooled her, by the exchangeof words earlier.The Cannons did a victory lap Tolls carrying the large trophy, and everyone clapped, even the ones who weren't for the Cannons. People eventually began to head out of the arena, where they could purchase souvenirs from the many stalls that had been set up while the game was actually taking place. Lily and James were the last two out of the group of eight that left the small little arena. James gripped Lily hand and looked down at her.

"This was the most awesome day that I can remember so far. Thank you so much Lily." He leaned down and kissed her, but noticing something hard in her pocket he looked at her curiously and watched as she actually blushed. Slowly she took out the book that he had seen her reading earlier only now it was a lot closer to being finished then it hade been earlier. He smiled at her knowingly and they began the long descent.

When they reached the outside of the stadium there were hundreds of stalls selling hundreds of different things. Lily couldn't help but look at some of them; a lot of them caught her eye. Lily yanked James over to a place that was selling videos of what actually happened. Lily looked up over at the stall man and he came over.

"How much are you selling them for?" She asked politely.

"Ten galleons each ma'am."

"I'd like two then please." He nodded happily and soon wrapped up two for her in a bag and took the money and tipped his small hat in appreciation.

"What'd you do that for?" James looked down at her confused.

"For Sirius and Meg of course, you know for a fact that they'd kill us if we didn't come back with something for them." Lily said. Meg happened to be a huge fan of Quidditch another reason Sirius and Meg got along great.

"Yeah you're right I hadn't thought about that." He said and they began to look at the other stalls. Lily and James purchased a Quidditch chess set for Remus and a small little necklace that had a snitch on it for Sam, because although she wasn't into the whole Quidditch thing, she always liked the snitch, she thought it was a pretty thing. It made Sirius and Meg roll their eyes because that was the only reason she liked it, but they never complained.

They reached the hotel completely and totally exhausted. They didn't have to wake up early tomorrow either, since professor Dumbledore having been to a few of these himself knowing that they tended to run a little late and they would want to sleep late to catch up on the sleep they missed. They split rooms with a kiss and Lily changed into her pajama pants and t-shirt the same thing she had worn when they first entered her room over a year ago. She lay down and turned out the lights and rolled over on her side, but still couldn't manage to get to sleep; it's as if everything was trying to keep her from doing so. Not to mention the people next door to her were extremely noisy; apparently during the Quidditch match they had decided to get drunk and were having what sounded literally like a party in their room because there was more then one pair of voices. Finally Lily decided that she had had enough. She gathered what little she had stuffed itback into her pack and quickly exited her room. She crept over to James's door and sneaked in closing the door silently.

James sat upright so fast that it made Lily jump and drop her bag he looked at her confusedly apparently he had just drifted off to sleep when Lily entered. "What are you doing?" He asked a little groggily.

"I couldn't get to sleep the people next to my room are having a party and their extremely noisy. Apparently they got drunk."

"Oh okay, but what are you doing here?"

She dropped her bag next to James's and walked over to the bed. "Scoot over." She said simply and he looked up at her a little confused.

"What do you mean scoot over?"

"What did you think I was going to sleep on the ground? Scoot over." She said again smiling a little in amusement.

"Ooo getting a little frisky aren't we Lily." He said good naturedly, but moved over anyways.

"Oh yes that's my every attention." She said rolling her eyes but climbed in next to James and used the spare pillow he wasn't using. It was a snug fit but they weren't complaining.

"Hey wait a second you told me that if I was a good boy you would tell me how much it cost. Now come on spit it out." Propping up on his elbow to get a better look at her. "You didn't pay as much as the others did you?"

"I don't know how much did they pay?" She asked as she popped up on one of her elbow and faced him.

"They said they paid a hundred galleons per seat for the seats we also sat up on." He said looking at her through slit eyes.

"Well I didn't pay that much. That would have been two hundred galleons. I only paid one hundred and seventy five." She said in a matter of fact and ignores the fact that James's jaw dropped wide open. She pushed it closed and looked at him curiously, until he finally got his voice back.

"Lily are you insane, that's way to much money to spend on a Christmas gift."

"James, it wasn't that big of a deal and it was worth it. We got to spend the day together, you got to see another Quidditch match, and you had a blast. I saw the look on your face as you watched it. James it was worth it, and it is my money to spend as I want, I don't see why you're making such a bid deal about it."

"I just feel like you spent too much on me Lily."

"Listen I love you, that's why I did it, and if I hear another word on how I spent too much money on you I'll take it the wrong way and think that you don't love me, now shut up about it." And then she turned around and laid down. A few seconds later though James wrapped his arms around her.

"Thank-you Lily." He whispered.

"You're welcome." She whispered back, and both of them drifted off into a content and thoroughly happy sleep.

* * *

A/N- hey guys I hoped you liked that chapter, I had fun writing it. Thanx so much to all my reviewers here's the chapter you've so patiently waited for! 

-Xfrozensorcerer-  
-LCH8292-  
-hypa4evr-  
-Flame Of Desire-  
-MagikMischiefMaker-  
-livingdead2010-

Again thanx so much.  
_Maddie_.   



	18. the begining of something horrible

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Eighteen-

* * *

Lily woke up in a slightly cramped position, and to the sound of a commotion outside in the hallway. She smiled realizing that the majority of the words being used were cuss words, and the word hangover quite a few times. She knew it must have been the people who had had the room next to hers. She slowly peeled open her eyes and stretched, and realized with a jolt that James wasn't there anymore. She sat up and looked around the room to see no one. She rubbed the rest of the sleep out of her eyes, and slowly stood up and stretched again. His bag was still there so he was still in the building. Lily sat back down on the bed and tried to decide if she wanted to actually get dressed and go look or wait a little while to see if he would come back. But no sooner had she though these things when a small knock on the door was heard. Lily walked over there and opened it to see James carrying two trays filled with delicious smelling foods. He grinned at her and she smiled in answer.

"Hungry?" He asked as he took the trays to a small table that was in his room and looked back at her motioning towards the chair.

"Starving, you read my mind didn't you?" She said laughing, she came up and gave him a kiss, which he enthusiastically returned, then sat down, James taking the seat opposite her, and both dug into the food. "What time is it?" Lily asked after they had been eating for a while.

"Let's see, it's about ten or so, I went and begged the cooks for some food, and you know, with my charming personality and striking good looks it was all too easy." He said smiling at her reaction, which was rolling of the eyes.

"I'm so sure." She said and then snatched the last of the bacon right before he could reach it, he looked at her indignantly, something she could see Sirius doing when she had taken bacon from him that one time.

"You took the last piece of bacon." He said accusingly.

"Well you wouldn't want me to go hungry now would you?" She said giving him the big puppy dog eyes.

"Oh no you can not use the puppy dog eyes, you won't starve if you give up one piece of bacon." He said avoiding her gaze making her laugh.

"Oh and you will starve if you miss a single piece of bacon?" She retorted back, James putting on an injured look on his face.

"Why yes Lily I would just drop dead on the ground, and maybe occasionally twitch, because my nervous system wouldn't completely give out till a day or two." Lily snorted at this.

"That would be interesting to see." She said looking at him curiously, making him shoot her a glare. "Fine, fine, we'll split in half, deal?"

"Perfect!" he said then took his half of the piece of the bacon both smiling for reasons that were obviously not about the bacon. After breakfast, James took the breakfast back down to the kitchen, and Lily changed, then began to pack up the clothes, James's included and set them on the desk and looked around one last time to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything.

James came up and grabbed his bag, also looking around to make sure he had left nothing, and then hand in hand they walked down to the common area, and to the fireplace, ready to head back to the castle. They waved goodbye to the hotel keeper, and to a few of the people who had been there when they arrived, and had helped them up, then Lily with her bag stepped into the fire and called out Hogwarts name, James a few seconds after her leaving followed. Lily being smart had stepped to the side of Dumbledore's office, so when James came stumbling into the room, she was not in the way and therefore not knocked down as she had been at the hotel. Dumbledore was standing there smiling at the two, who were laughing and dusting each other off, until the noticed Dumbledore there and jumped since they hadn't seen him earlier.

"Good morning professor." Lily said cheerfully as they picked up their bags, which had fallen to the ground in their journey back to the castle.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter and Miss. Evans." His eyes were twinkling like usual. "I'm glad to see you so fully awake, your friends are in the great hall, and fairly bored, if Mr. Black hasn't done anything yet." He said and then with a few more pleasantries exchanged they excused themselves, and ran all the way to the Great Hall.

"So should we say we forgot their presents or immediately give it to them?" Lily said as they reached the Great Hall.

"I don't know which one do you think will be more amusing?" He answered her question with another question, something that she noticed he did a lot.

"Definitely saying that we forgot their presents." She said as they entered and scanned the great hall to see that they had walked into a full fledged food fight between the slithering and Gryffindor tables. They stood there at the entrance and saw that the teachers were trying to stop it, to no avail. They saw that Sirius was in the middle of it all, in fact he was standing on top of the table laughing like an evil maniac, and she caught Remus, Meg, and Sam's eye, and ducking and dodging food they ran towards them, and then looking back into the mess she smiled.

"What do you say we go to the library? There we could actually hear what you're going to be saying." Meg yelled as she looked back and scowl covered her features. "Why am I going out with that idiot?" She asked as she saw Sirius trying to be dragged from the top of the table by three teachers but excellently dodging all attempts.

"Because you love him." Lily and Sam said at the same time while the boys said. "Maybe he hypnotized you to do it."

"I think it's the second one." She said as they made their way to the library ignoring Sirius's sudden yelp, which told him that the teachers had finally gotten a hold of him. When they finally reached the library. And went to a secluded corner of it so they would not be disturbed from people Lily and James were bombarded with questions, most of them coming from Meg since Sam and Remus weren't all that into the whole Quidditch thing. Lily and James answered them to the best of their ability and finally Meg couldn't take all the talking any longer.

"C'mon you know you got me something." She raised her eyebrows and lowered them several times making Lily laugh.

"Alright, alright, we got all of you something, even Sirius, though since he's not here oh well." She said she gave them all of the things, making them all smile in appreciation and thanks. They talked a lot mostly about things that had happened you know even though it was a day only Sirius had done a lot of things in the past night including a prank which had caused the beginning of the food fight, which Sirius was totally proud of none the less. They ended up spending the whole afternoon there, and didn't even realize it till Sam glanced down at her watch and noticed that it was ten minutes till time for supper. They got up and ran towards the Great hall where they found that the mess of earlier had been cleaned up, and that Sirius was glancing around looking annoyed. When he spotted them he was like a bullet aiming for the target.

"Where were you all the whole day and when did you and James get back Lily, how come you didn't stay for the food fight you who is supposed to be my girlfriend. I feel so alone, cold shivering in a dark alley way somewhere." He said wiping away a fake tear and a sniveling a little, then glancing up to see what kind of reaction he was getting. Meg looked as if she was holding back with all of her willpower so as not to smack him upside the head. Remus, Sam and James just rolled their eyes, but Lily looked thoughtful.

"I'm so sorry that you feel that way Sirius, I guess hat means you're upset at us right?" He nodded his head in confirmation. "Gee, that's a shame, I guess you wouldn't want to take a present from a person you were mad at. Oh well I can always give it to someone else. I'm sure there's someone else here in the great hall that wouldn't mind the present that we had originally had bought for you." And before he could say anything she walked past him smiling and went to take her seat. The rest of them followed trying to muffle their laughter, and failing miserably at times, and then Sirius just stood there trying to process what Lily had just said, and it did take him a good while. Because they had been sitting down for a few seconds when they looked back realization finally dawned on what Lily had just said and he tore off running towards them.

"Oh great goddess Lily, please forgive such a fool as me. Gibberish comes out of this mouth all the time, it is because my brain holds little to know information at all. This humble servant would truly accept a gift from you." He was on his knees looking up at her with puppy dog eyes. She laughed aloud and pulled out the present, she was feeling too nice to make him wait and beg for it. He opened it his face a mask of pure pleasure, and as he opened it he almost got teary eyed it was funny. He threw his arms around James, and then Lily giving them both a bone crushing hug. "I love you guys." And then he went to eating.

After supper they split up, James and Lily had to go prep for a prefects meeting that would be next week, and both were still tired from the game, and the others mainly Meg and Sirius wanted to watch the game since that was what they had been given. James and Lily were working in their common room at a table trying to figure out a system of order, which wasn't going as easy as they had though it would be. Both were practically dead on their feet, and finally James stood up.

"I'll be back in a few minutes, I'm going to go get us something to drink."

"Ooh get me some strawberry lemonade will you?" She said as she continued to right frantically on a now piece of paper that you could scarcely read anyway. James took a secret passageway that led to the kitchens and got a butterbeer for him and strawberry lemonade for Lily. He took the long route to their rooms and avoided all the ghosts and especially Mrs. Norris. When he entered, he had already drunken half of his butter beer and walked to the common room to be greeted with the sight of Lily asleep her head on the table, and the pencil still in her hand. He smiled fondly, and he set the drinks there, and careful not to wake her, he picked her up and took her back to her room. Then he went back to the table and finished up, eventually going back to his own bed to sleep.

* * *

Lily woke up to the comfort and warmth of her own bed and smiled while continuing to stretch. Today was Sunday, since the Quidditch game was Friday and Saturday, and she really didn't want to get up. She knew she had too, she still had to finish the planning for the prefects meeting but it was nice and warm under her covers, and the ground below was more then likely extremely cold. She heard a soft knock at the door and called out to whoever it was.

"What do you want?" Actually it was forced out sounding like a groan but hey she had just woken up and you can't expect that much from Lily, who isn't always the best of morning people.

James poked his head in and grinned a large goofy grin. "Well aren't you a vision of ethereal beauty and perkiness."

Lily, although smiling at this comment grabbed a pillow and chunked it across the room, almost hitting James who closed the door just in time to avoid it, then popped his head back in looking affronted. Almost like what Sirius looks like when anyone teases, him, so basically almost what Sirius looks like all the time since they tease him all the time. "What's up?" She asked ignoring his look.

"I wanted to make sure you were up, and if you were if you wanted to go and get some breakfast with the others since they said they'd be dropping by. I think they plan to go to the kitchens, and maybe get some hot chocolate." He said as he came in and sat down next to her kissing her lightly.

"I don't know, I mean my beds nice and comfortable very warm too." She said smiling at him teasingly.

"Well if you don't want to go that's okay, I mean you'll just be leaving me alone with our insane and very much weird friends." He said pouting a little making Lily roll her eyes.

"True but then there's always a second alternative to you going and eating with our very much insane friends."

"Oh yeah and what would that be?"

"You could join me." She said teasing as then laughing as his eyebrows rose.

"Oh la la Lily." He said making her laugh harder and then slowly and extremely reluctantly she slipped out of her bed and hugged him then steered him across the room and shoved him out of the room laughing at his protests.

She went over grabbed a pair if jeans and a thin sweater that she had had made for her specially. It had a picture of her and James in the middle, Sam and Remus on the right and Meg and Sirius on the left of one big photograph. She wore it a lot because she it was her favorite shirt. She then slipped into some slip on shoes and pulled her hair up into a loose ponytail then walked into their common room to be greeted with the faces of her friends, and Sirius who seemed to be telling them about his detention from the food fight, laughing on the couches. Lily grinned an evil smile, since everyone's back was to her except for Sam and Remus who saw her, but she shook her head frantically. So they acted as if they hadn't seen anything and went on joking with each other. Lily creepy up behind Meg and Sirius and then in a spur of the moment idea, she used the back of the couch as a propeller and jumped over it landing on both of their laps. Lily was greeted with a satisfying result as Meg screamed, and Sirius shouted at the sudden abruptness of the appearance of Lily.

"OH MY GOSH LILY!" Meg screamed as Lily continued to laugh uncontrollably and still in their laps, but she managed to scoot over to where she was in James, who was also laughing.

"I know, I know, I'm cruel and evil, the worst kind of friend. I mean honestly how could I even think to do something as mean as that, and after everything you two had done for me. What did you ever do to deserve me pulling a joke on you? Did I leave anything out of the usual reply?" She looked up at the face of Meg whose eyes were looking up then she spoke fairly calmly.

"Yes you forgot the part where I curse you upside down after all the trying to figure out what I did to deserve that."

"Forgive me I didn't want to ruin all of your fun. I mean seriously if I did that it meant you wouldn't be able to. Plus you know I don't curse." She added the last part as an after thought making Meg, despite the fact that she was trying to hide it, smile at her friend.

"Well alright I suppose I can forgive you, after all you did buy me a tape of the Quidditch game. Anyways I'm starving lets go eat."

That's when everyone realized that Sirius who usually put his two cents in whenever something was done to him had not said a word. So when they looked over at him they found him shockingly asleep. I mean seriously, one minute he was all laughing and joking about the whole detention thing the next thing you know he's dead to the world. They had to admit though that they were a little impressed by the fact that he could sleep anywhere anytime. Meg was just about to roll her eyes in disbelief until she noticed that his eye was twitching. Meg smiled an evil smile and to the others mouthed to them that Sirius was faking. They laughed silently as Meg mouthed them the plan and then said in her normal voice.

"Aw, Sirius is asleep; do you know what would be really cool?"

"What?" Lily asked as she came over to stand behind Meg.

"If we gave him a makeover, I know he always wanted to have one, you know get in with his more feminine side."

"Yes that sounds like Sirius, and silver eye shadow would be the perfect color." Sam spoke up coming over with a bag that had Lily's makeup in it.

"Yeah and pink Lipstick." Lily said as she began to dig around in the bag and take out some things. Just as she was about to put some things on Sirius he sprung up, tripped over his own feet and fell backward off the couch making them all laugh.

"Aw, Sirius how come you woke up? We were planning a surprise for you and we didn't even get the chance to start it." Meg said pouting at him as he shot her a glare that could kill.

"Well I don't want any surprises." He said huffily, then walked away from them. "I'm going to go get something to eat."

"Wait for us then because believe it or not I'm pretty hungry too." James and the others nodded in agreement as they ran to catch up to Sirius.

They made it to the kitchens and ate fairly well, then went outside and played in the snow, like the others who stayed at the castle during the holidays, the rest of the school will be coming back to the castle next week, until then it was fairly quiet. It was supper time, half way through it actually, and the few people who were in there had already gotten there mail when a loud noise from above them drew the few peoples attention and the teachers. It was two birds, a gray ministry bird, one that reported incidents but not deaths and one that no one had ever seen before, it was black but it also had green in it. It was the weirdest thing Lily and the others had ever seen, and both of them landed next to her. She grabbed for the one that the gray one first and opened it with surprisingly shaking hands.

_Dear Ms. Evans,  
We regret to inform you that your deceased Aunts house, in which your sister currently owns, has burned down. The dark sign was found in the top of the remains of your house. Your sister is safe, and well, we hope this doesn't cause you any problems.  
Sincerely, The Ministry of Magic._

Lily found that there were tears stinging her eyes and she suddenly knew what the next letter had written on it. Sheslightly jumped at the feel of something on her cheek and lifted her hand to feel a tear coming down it slowly, and she looked up to see the others watching her with concern on their faces and eyes. Silently and very emotionlessly she passed the letter to James and with hands that shook even more then they had when she reached for the ministry letter, she reached for the other, then watched as the bird fly away, in what she swore was a mocking and menacing way. She tore open the letter and began to read, a small sob escaped from her lip, and the tears landed on the letter as she read it.

_My Dearest Lily,  
I told you that you would regret the fact that you didn't join me. You should have listened and heeded my words. You should have known better than anyone that I always keep my word. Remember these words though, it will only get worst until you finally come to the realization that the only way you can stop this is to join me. I hope you come to your senses quickly dear Lily.  
Tom._

Lily couldn't stop the tears anymore they were coming down steady and she didn't want them to stop. Even though it reminded her that this was a reality, and that this was actually happened. She passed the letter to James, who was looking at her fixedly and only took it when Lily looked away. She couldn't take the stares that she was getting from the people, all of them curious as to why Lily would be crying. She got up and ran out of the great hall into the front of the castle and into the blast of cold air that soothed her in her pain. She ran to a small tree that was close to the castle, she didn't want to go too far and crumpled up beneath it. A few minutes later she heard the footsteps of five individuals, no there were six. She didn't look up though; she knew they would say what they wanted to say when they were ready.

"Ms. Evans I think we should go inside, and discuss this." It was the voice of professor Dumbledore. She looked up into his eyes that twinkled, but at the same time were grave. She looked away and out over the serene lake. "It is extremely cold and I would hate for you to catch a sickness." He urged when she said nothing.

"I like the cold, it keeps me numb." She said continuing to stare out over the lake. "Could we wait till tomorrow, I don't think I would be able to handle talking about it tonight." She said quietly again.

"I suppose, but I want you inside soon, I didn't want you to get sick." He said and then his eyes still grave he left the group of friends, glancing back one last time as he went inside.

James and the others stayed behind and walked up to Lily enveloping her into a large hug, and they talked quietly amongst themselves. "So what are you going to do now?" James asked quietly after a while when they were all a little numb.

She was quiet for a while then gazing past them, past the scenery, almost as if she was gazing into the future she spoke. "I plan on training harder, and more determined then anything else that I've ever done. I plan on hunting him down, and no matter what he does, the more horrible things he does to me, the more resolved I'm going to become in not joining up with him. He's stupid to think that he can hurt his way to get me to come to him. But in a way he's succeeded. I'm going to go to him, but it's not going to be with the intentions he's going to want." She said he jaw set in a determined manner; no she was not going to go to him begging to be on his side, she was going to go to him with the intention of killing him on her mind.

* * *

A/N- hey I hope you liked the chapter; sorry it took me a while to get it up. Happy Halloween by the way. Thanx to all of my reviewers you all are the best.

-livingdead2010-  
-Flame Of Desire-  
-MagikMischiefMaker-  
-Emerald Eyes Of Flame-  
-DDwelling-  
-Mathu-

Again thanx so much, and hope you like the chapter.

_Maddie._


	19. laughter's the key

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Nineteen.-

* * *

Lily walked out of the large group hug and away from them not wanting to talk anymore, no she just wanted to be left alone for a while. She was having too many conflicting emotions at the moment. She stood in the middle of a field and let the rain wash over her, and sometimes it would come down so hard that it would begin to sting, she liked that feeling a lot. The others knowing that she wanted to be left alone but concerned about her decided to double back and then hide in the bushes. She eventually slunk down and was silent occasionally she would say something low and a bright light would shine around her but it would slowly drain away from her it wasn't long until she slowly got up and walked back into the castle muddy, and dripping wet.

The others followed, and when they saw her go into the heads dormitory the group split up letting James go to Lily alone. He went in and quietly tapped at her door. He didn't know really what to say, Lily was person he realized that tragedy seemed to follow. I mean he had seen so many bad things happen to her and it just didn't seem fair. Nobody answered though and then slowly easing open the door he saw the cube he had gotten her for Christmas hanging in the middle of the room, meaning she was in there. Although he didn't like to pry he was worried about Lily so slowly he reached out his hand and touched the box and was instantly sucked into it and to the place where Lily was.

He was dropped behind a tree with a large thump and slowly looking around he tried to figure out where he was. It was a large field; with he noticed a ring of trees in a perfect circle. There were obstacles in the middle of the field and he wasn't quite sure what the purpose of them was for. And then he saw Lily, she had changed out of her regular clothes and was in her exercise clothes and he was amazed to see that she was working out. She was doing pushups, and after a while she got up breathing hard and began to jump over, swing from, and climb up the obstacles in the middle of the field. She had worked up a sweat when a light surrounded her. That's when he noticed the pictures and targets hanging around the trees. She lashed out at them with her wandless magic, some of them she missed but she kept at it until she could hit all of them the first time. She said something, he was too far away from her to hear and immediately the field disappeared and a more vigorous exercise routine.

James walked out of his hiding place and approached her slowly. He didn't want her to overwork herself. Before he was even halfway to her she sighed and then turned to look at him. "How long were you going to watch me?" She asked quietly.

"I'm not sure, you looked like you needed to vent some anger so I didn't want to jump right in, but I would prefer it if you didn't kill yourself while doing it." He replied slowly, she smiled and took a deep breath in. "How are you feeling."

"Actually pretty fine, I've made up my mind of what I'm going to do, and I feel a lot better. Maybe it's the fact that I have a solid resolve, I have something to work towards, I think it'll help me concentrate on the good more then the bad." She said and then smiled at him, came close and threw her arms around him hugging him tight, he returned the hug.

James suddenly had an idea, he slowly drew Lily away a little reluctantly. "So this place, it'll create anything you want it to right?" Lily nodded her head yes. "Good plug your ears and close your eyes, I thought of something, and it'll be a good surprise!"

She looked at him suspiciously and then plugged her ears and closed her eyes. He whispered what he wanted the box to do just in the off chance that she hadn't plugged her ears as well as he would like. He watched as the scenery change from outside to a place he knew Lily would Love and Lily's and James's clothes changed. He tapped Lily on the shoulder just as music started to play. She unplugged her ears and opened her eyes and gaped at what she saw. They were in a fancy elegant ball room. James was in a tux, and she was in a pink dress that fluffed out at the hips. She looked down and grimaced.

"You know I dislike the color pink." She said teasingly.

"Very well." Slowly the color of her dress changed from a pink to a lavender shade that complimented her well. "Better?"

"Much, so what is all this about?"

"Well I always remember that you always wanted to visit a medieval ball room and dance in it, so I created one for you." James bowed lowly and looked up his eyes gleaming mischievously. "May I have the honor of the dance?"

Lily laughed and then curtsied, he noticed that it was very nice, she must have practiced it. "You may."

Lily loved it, they went through two dances a slow one and one that wasn't necessarily fast but it wasn't slow it was somewhere in the middle. It was just as she had always imagined it to be, and she felt somewhat like Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, or some kind of royalty going to an important ball. They were just beginning another dance when a small ping filled the air, James looked around confused.

"What was that?"

"That was a warning that someone is in my room. That's how I knew you had come in my room and that you had come into the box." She replied. "It's probably Meg and the others, and knowing Sirius he'll have to touch the box, he's just so like that." She said smiling fondly.

"True, but why would they come. I mean we only left them well……..actually I guess it has been an hour or two." He said thoughtfully.

"Usually after you come and cheer me up you take me back out to be around them I guess they just got a little worried."

"I see."

They continued on with the dance until another ping followed by three more filled the air, He could see them in a corner. Remus and Sirius had immediately changed into tuxes and the girls into ball gowns close to that of Lily's although Sam's was a soft Rose color, and Meg's was a sapphire blue. They ignored them for a few seconds before they turned and stared at them both with raised eyebrows in questioning glances. The girls and Remus at least had the decency enough to blush since they had pried into it but Sirius only looked around and nodded his head in his approval.

"Well this is really nice, and boy don't I look like a chunk of a hunk." He said making everyone look at him. Meg shook her head silently saying that there was no hope for this one.

They walked over to Lily and James and smiled cautiously. "How you doing Lily?" Sam asked quietly.

"How Dare You address me without bowing and curtsying, honestly how could you even think to do such a thing." She said her voice haughty but her eyes dancing.

The four of them laughed in relief and as one bowed or curtsied and then really took a look around at their surroundings. "This is really nice, who thought of this." Remus asked as he looked at the painted ceiling, it resembled most, one's that had angels thankfully none naked though.

"James, he knew I always wanted to do this kind of thing." She said smiling also taking a look around. "But to stay you have to dance, that is the only rule that is in this place." And then she swept James away in a tango move as the others not quite sure if she was serious or not.

They shrugged their shoulder and grabbed their partner, they didn't know how long they stayed in there dancing, they occasionally changed partners but they mostly stayed with their other half, as Hogwarts called them. When they were all exhausted and about to leave Sam looked down at her dress sadly.

"I don't suppose we'll be able to take our dresses out of this box will we?"

"I don't think so." Lily said sadly thinking of her own gown she was wearing.

"Oh well." And then slowly the dresses disappeared and they were all back in Lily's room their normal clothes back on. They looked around blinking a little still used to the medieval look. Sirius, Remus, Sam, and Meg hugged her and James goodbye then waved as they walked back to their own place. Lily walked over to the couch thinking as James knew from the look on her face.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked as she sat down.

"I'm thinking about what Sam said, she really liked that dress." Her face suddenly brightened and she drew out her wand, muttering something under her breath the shape of a dress formed in front of their eyes and when it was finished it was an exact replica of the one Sam had worn in her illusion box. James had a look on his face that when Lily glanced at it as she was wrapping up the dress, she couldn't quite identify it.

"What's wrong James?"

"What are you going to do with the dress?"

"I'm going to give it to Remus to give it to Sam. You know I want Remus to get the credit."

"Oh."

"James what's on your mind?" She asked cocking her head slightly.

"I just can't figure you out Lily."

"What does that mean?"

"I mean you're surrounded by tragedy, I mean I have never met someone as strong as you or someone who has gone through the things you've gone through and can still smile every day. How do you do it?"

Lily looked thoughtful. "It's hard." She said finally and slowly. "I'd be lying if I said it wasn't. But I know that I have to concentrate on the good things other then the bad things." Lily began to pick at her clothes needing something to do with her hands. "If I let the grief consume me I wouldn't be me. I have to grieve when I need to but I also need to try and smile and laugh as soon as I can. My aunt once said that if you laugh daily, it makes the world look like a more comforting and inviting place. She told me to always find to good of things, and to always laugh, it keeps you younger."

"Your Aunt really was a smart woman." He gripped Lily's hand and squeezed it tightly.

"Yeah she was, so even though it hurts that the house is gone, I mean let's face it I grew up in that house. I have to hold on to the good memories or I won't make it in life."

James smiled. "Well I don't know about you but I'm exhausted, what do you say we deliver that tomorrow, and go to bed."

"Sounds good to me!"

They slowly went to their own rooms after kissing each other good night and when finally in bed they slowly drifted off into a good dream.

* * *

Lily woke up earlier then she usually did. She stretched thought about going back to sleep then thought better of it. She got up and took a quick shower then came back out not quite sure what she was going to do. She sat on her bed and picked up the slightly snoring Ella smiling as little puffs of smoke came from her mouth. It woke up and glared up at Lily as if asking why she woke her up. Lily smiled and only gave her a treat, the glare disappearing completely. She gave Harry a treat too and then realizing she hadn't spent a while with Ella she draped her over her shoulder and headed towards Professor Dumbledore's study, since he had wanted to talk to her.

Before she left though she stopped and wrote a small little note to James, that hung above his door so it would be the first thing he saw when he eventually got up. She walked out Ella, who hadn't been to many places in the castles looked around occasionally getting so interested in one thing she would try to lean forward and almost fall off. Lily obligingly went to all the things that interested her and let her study them. They eventually made it to Professor Dumbledore's room, where she said the password and went up on the moving staircase. She lightly tapped on the door and was welcomed with Professor Dumbledore's cheery voice calling out for her to come in.

Lily did so but closed the door behind her and then sat down in front of Dumbledore's desk. Dumbledore smiled at her and then rose is eyebrows in delight as he noticed Ella still on Lily's shoulder and looking around with great interest.

"Now that is very interesting, I haven't seen a hologram dragon egg in a long time. You know they stopped making them a long time ago. They're expensive these days."

Lily blushed. "Her name's Ella, she was a gift." Lily coaxed Ella down her arm and set her on the desk where she cautiously, with help pf Lily prodding her, approached Professor Dumbledore. Dumbledore opened his hands and spread them towards her letting her sniff him. She sniffed and sneezed then crooned as Dumbledore cautiously stroked her head.

"Would it be okay if she looked around?" lily asked, Ella hearing this cocked her head at Dumbledore, she was extremely smart there was no doubt about that.

"That would be fine, there's nothing here that she could harm or that could harm her."

Lily nodded then picked up Ella and set her on the ground telling her she could go anywhere she wanted to. Ella cocked her head again then slowly walked off to inspect the things that interested her the most. She looked up at Professor Dumbledore who was looking at her curiously. "Lemon Drop?" was all he said though. Lily gratefully took on and popped it in her mouth. "Now Ms. Lily what can I do for you today?"

"Well you told me yesterday you'd like to talk about what happened." She said calmly.

"Yes I did, are you sure you can though, I don't want to push you to do it."

"No I think that I am ready to talk."

"Very well, I have noticed that you seem to be of great interest to Tom, even before he found out you did wandless magic. Would you mind explaining that to me?"

Lily bit her lip then sighed. "It's because Tom's my cousin, I know that what he does is wrong I hate it a lot, but he always watched out for me. Even when I told him I didn't want to see him ever again he watched out for me still. He's wasn't always evil." She said quietly. It was time for Professor Dumbledore to know.

"I see, that's very sad."

"I didn't send him information about Hogwarts."

"My dear Ms. Evans anyone who knew you would know that much. A betrayal that deep just doesn't seem capable by your doing. No I think he has someone else in the castle. It's possible that he can recruit many of the young kids to be death eaters."

Lily smiled in relief, she hadn't really thought professor Dumbledore would accuse her of anything like that but it was nice to hear him say it, it was a weight off her chest.

"May I ask what you plan to do now?"

"I plan on training harder than anything I've ever done before. I'll do what I have to do, and I will never give in to him, no matter how much he hurts me."

"I think that is a wise idea Ms. Evans, and I am sure that if anyone can do it you can."

Lily smiled at Professor Dumbledore and they talked of innocent things, Lily described the Quidditch match and other things, Dumbledore answered some questions, Ella came up with a charm in her mouth and no matter how much Lily tried to persuade the dragon it wouldn't let it go. She finally got it out of her mouth though, and when Dumbledore saw what it was he laughed. Dumbledore assured Lily that it wasn't anything he actually needed and Ella was more then welcome to keep it. It was a small little ring with a lightning bolt across it. Dumbledore even expanded it with magic to where it could slip over Ella and act as a collar. She was so satisfied with it she went to the closest mirror and looked at herself making Dumbledore laugh at her vanity. Finally Lily stood and scooped up Ella with a wave goodbye to Professor Dumbledore she walked out to be greeted with James walking down the hallway. Lily draped Ella over her shoulder and then looked at James curiously.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well after your note followed me around until I read it I decided to come and make sure everything was all right."

Lily laughed and hugged James then walked with him down the hallway back to their rooms. Lily went and picked up the dress in a package and with James in tow went to the Gryffindor common room to give it to Remus. She burst in like she had done at James's house when she had been there during the summer. The only thing they did was roll over and ignore the noise. Lily hoping this would happen smiled a sudden mischievous smile that made James wince in sympathy for what she was going to do the two boys. She thought about it for a few minutes trying to think of the perfect way to wake them up when inspiration hit her. Taking out her wand she muttered something under her breath and then smiled at her results. On Sirius's bed she placed the enticing aroma of his favorite food. She watched in amusement as Sirius's face lifted inch by inch as his nose sniffed in the smell of food.

He was up immediately and seeing the food he yelped in joy like a little kid at Christmas and dove for the food. He reached out for the closest thing and when his hand passed through the hologram his face crumbled like he was about to cry. Remus on the other hand woke up to a bucket of slime covering him then a bucket of feathers covering him and a flash of a camera taking a picture and the sound of Lily and James's laughter. Remus looked down at him and then back at Lily.

"LILY!" Sirius and Remus yelled at the same time.

"Well Remus I had to talk to you." She said as if it was the most obvious of things.

"Then why's you wake me up!" Sirius yelled.

"I don't know you were just there, and I came up with that idea and just wanted to try it out. It worked so good I'll have to tell Meg about it."

"What'd you want Lily?" Remus asked resigning himself to the fact that even if he started an argument with Lily he would win. Lily looked over at him smiled and then taking pity on him she waved her hands at him and the feathers and goop disappeared.

"Well I created this and I though that if you gave it to Sam it'd be nice. You're not to mention my name no matter what happens. This is a gift from you to Sam." She walked over and placed the package on Remus's bed then smiled at the two. "Well I'm hungry see you guys later we're going to go to the great hall and get something to eat." and then grabbing James's hand they walked out towards the great Hall leaving behind a bewildered Remus and a yelling Sirius.

"That was interesting." James said smiling.

"Yeah I had a lot of fun just there, brings back fond memories." She said laughing.

They made it to the great hall where Sam and Meg were already there and sat down next to them. Lily who had sped up the publication of the picture of Remus with her magic showed it to Sam who couldn't stop laughing that she almost choked like Sirius did. She also described how she had woken up Sirius and gave Meg the spell much to her enjoyment. James kind of felt sorry for Remus and Sirius but there wasn't much he could do. Remus and Sirius came in a few minutes later, Remus carrying the package. Still not sure what was in it but trying to play the part Remus handed the gift to Sam who looked at it curiously. Slowly and almost cautiously she opened the package and when she saw it she literally teared up as she looked at the dress she had really wanted. She hugged Remus hard and gave him a kiss all the while crying from happiness. Remus while hugging Sam mouthed a thank you to Lily who smiled thoroughly satisfied, not bad for the beginning of a day.

* * *

A/N- Hey guys sorry it took me so long to get up I hope you like it and I'll try to update my other stories soon. Well I want to say thanx to all of my reviewers!

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Again thanx so much and hope you liked the chapter!  
_Maddie._


	20. planning and nightmares!

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Twenty-

* * *

The next few weeks for Lily were thankfully uneventful. In the papers though the news became more and more distressed, It seemed that Tom was going on a rampage and was doing as much damage as he could manage. Lily despite what the others thought or said continued to train everyday working out as much as she could get it that was reasonable and not overworking herself. James sometimes accompanied her to give her company but he didn't like to do exercise when he really didn't have to. Lily was doing better though and it helped the others to relax. The day Lily had given Remus the dress for Sam, the girls had split for a while to hang out and she kept going on and on about the dress she couldn't get it off of her mind and just couldn't believe Remus did it for her. Meg and Lily couldn't help but laugh at her as she continued to go on and on about it.

The group was sitting at the end of the table at supper, their normal spot most of the time when Lily and James slowly got up saying they would catch the others later since they had a meeting with the seventh year prefects. They were going to be discussing the plans and ideas that they had for the going away ball for the seventh years that was coming up in about a threemonths or so depending on when they wanted it. Now that they thought about it the end of the year was coming closer and closer and the last year of Hogwarts was slipping through their fingers and they couldn't grasp it no matter how hard they tried. They were the first two there but then they were ten minutes early and they went andsat on the opposite side of the table which was round. Lily had wanted that because she liked the ides of a round table like in the tale of King Arthur.

As they talked amongst themselves one by one the others slowly came in and took their places talking amongst themselves also. Finally as the last ones entered Lily called the meeting into order and the others slowly quieted down.

"Alright we're here to discuss the going away ball this year, the first thing we need to decide is what day we want to have it on! Now today is January fifteenth, we're going to need maybe a month perhaps two to prepare so when would you all like to have the ball?"

The slowly talked it out between them all and couldn't decide when they would want it. Lily felt the beginnings of a head ache they were arguing so much that she felt she wanted to scream luckily and thankfully James took over from that point, whether it was because he saw how stressed Lily was getting or because he too felt the beginnings of a headache coming on too.

"People, c'mon the sooner we get the decided the sooner we can move on to the next issue, the sooner we can get out of here! Now most of you agree you want it in May, now the question is do you want it at the beginning or closer to the end when we leave?" They all decided it would be better close to the end, so James moved on to the next question. "Then why don't we have it the week before the last week that way the last week we can have parties in the common room including everyone?" After a few muttering from some of the groups they agreed that that would be best.

"Now do you want it on a Friday after class or would you rather have it on a Saturday night that way you wouldn't have to worry about time to get ready?" Lily asked after James sat down with a sigh as if he was exhausted.

"Let's have it on a Saturday, I think it would be too stressful if we had It on a Friday." The Ravenclaw prefect said and others nodded their heads in agreement. Alright then it's settled we'll have the ball on 26th of May." Lily bent down and jotted the date on a note of paper then looked back up. "Alright next question do you want to eat there or would you rather have a late night ball?"

"Couldn't we do a little both. I mean we could start the ball at five where we could eat, the other years could have theirs in the dormitory, and we could have it as late as we want it. I think we should be able to party as long as we want since it is going to be our last nights at Hogwarts." A Hufflepuff boy spoke up this time and everyone agreed thinking that it was a good idea to them.

"Alright so we want it to start at five and end whenever we all fall down from exhaustion!" The others nodded their heads in agreement some even chuckling. Lily noted this down below the date of the notebook and looked up. "Okay then what kind of a menu would you like to have." James spoke up then.

"We could have a specific menu with a few items or we could all have the same thing you know like order one big thing." James pointed out.

"But the problem about that is what if some of the people don't like that one thing?" A Slytherin girl pointed out.

"That's true, then we'll have a small menu that you can choose from, what would you want on it, fancy foods or everyday fast food, good food?"

"I think we shouldn't have fancy food, it's more money and sometimes it's not even good. Why not have like Hamburgers, Chicken Pizza, things like that." The Gryffindor prefect pointed out.

"Does everyone agree with that?" Lily asked and at their agreements Lily wrote the menu idea and the food groups below the time. "Now I know we've gone over this before but do you guys still want the live D.J?" They nodded and Lily jotted that down. "And do you still want the Garden?" Again they all nodded their heads. "Okay then next week when you come back to the meeting we'll have the groups made up of where you're going to be working on. Is there anything else special that you want at the ball?" No one spoke up though they looked at each other to make sure they weren't either.

"Okay then I think we're finished here. You guys can go and thanks for coming here even though there wasn't supposed to be a prefects meeting this week." And then waving good bye the all left and went back to their heads dormitory.

Lily sat down in the chair with a large sigh of relief. "I hate trying to get them to agree it can sometimes be so hard!" She said tiredly as she began to redo the notes in more detail since after this they would be going to Professor Dumbledore's office to give him the notes.

"Why do you think I sighed so loudly, I was all spent up after trying to get them to agree on a date. I did my share!" He said grinning charmingly at Lily who glared at him and then smacked him playfully.

"C'mon we have to get these notes to Professor Dumbledore." They got up slowly and almost reluctantly they chairs in the meeting room we're extremely comfortable and they both liked them a lot.

They finally arrived at Professor's Dumbledore's office and gave him the notes and after a few more minutes both were exhausted and Dumbledore noting this told them to go back to their rooms that they looked like they were about to pass out and smiling they did what they were told.

"Tomorrow we'll go over the list of prefects and find out where they'll go in the roster of where everyone was going to work."

James agreed with a small grunt and then kissing each other good night they split off from each other and headed towards their own rooms for a good nights sleep.

* * *

_Something was chasing her, she could here its breath as it came closer and closer. She could feel her own heart as it beat wildly in her ribcage. She was sure that everyone in the world could hear it and the harder she tried to quiet it down the louder it seemed to grow and the closer the thing that was chasing her came to her. She finally burst from what had been a forest and ran with whatever strength was left to her away from the thing that pursued her only to find that it had stopped at the edge of the forest. _

_Finally was she able to get her breath under control and the loud thumping in her heat slowed to a steady and calm rhythm and beat. She looked around to find out where she was and recognized nothing. A little ways away from her she could see a small formation of Rocks and a single one tree that although still standing was split in the middle completely. Clouds above her slowly dotted out the light of the stars and eventually the light of the moon itself. _

_Slowly she walked towards the rocks as if drawn to them, they seemed to be giving off a light that wasn't like anything she had ever seen before. When she reached then they were larger then she had first thought they were and she felt a desire to touch it and yet at the same time something was telling her to stay away from it and run. Slowly and hesitantly she stretched out her arm and the moment she touched it she knew it was a mistake. A thousand needles of pain pierced her body and as the pain reached the maximum she let out a single scream before everything went black._

Lily hadn't realized she screamed until James slammed into her room wand at the ready. Lily sat up faster then anyone would think possible and breathed in gasps of air and looked at her shaking hands.

"Lily are you alright!" He came over to her and gripped her hands slowly rubbing them to get the shakes away from them.

When Lily got her voice back she nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm sorry I hadn't meant to scream."

"What happened?"

"I don't remember." Lily said slowly trying to remember what the dream had been about but coming up with nothing. "All I know that it was a dream and it creeped me out. I can't remember what it was about though, how weird usually I remember all of my dreams."

"You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, it might have something to do with my book I'm reading it's kind of creepy I bet I dreamt of something that had to do with the book." Lily said smiling her face returning its color. "I'm sorry I scared you!" She said and then after they talked a few more minutes they kissed again and James went back to his room and Lily turned out the lights after consoling Harry and Ella then went back to sleep.

Whatever she had dreamed of before Lily didn't dream of it again and nothing else haunted her dreams that night or the next so they dismissed it after the second night nothing happened. James and Lily split the seventh year prefects into groups and made sure that everyone was alright with where they werestationed at,not that they were going to change it or anything. Lily continued her training also by herself and with Professor Dumbledore along with the others. She was making amazing progress in the class and no one could find anything wrong with the way she approached her problems. They thankfully had a Hogsmeade weekend which everyone in school was definitely thankful for. Not only was everyone tired from school but the group of six was also, apart from training, studying for the N.E.W.T's. All of them were tired of studying even the girls who usually didn't mind it.

They ate there and the boys stocked up on pranking supplies, the girls books and all of them went to the arcade and ice cream at the end of the day. It was very relaxing even if the weather was still a little nippy and the wind still had a cold bite if you didn't wear enough clothing. They came back to Hogwarts refreshed and relaxed and were ready to begin to crack the books once again. They came up with a system, one night they would spend studying the next night they would just hang and have fun, and so forth switching them on and off and it worked amazingly.

Another week passed and they were about to enter the month of March without anything bad happening and although the murder toll was up they couldn't help but feel as if they were a little too far away for the trouble to reach them. A foolish thought, but at the same time a comforting one, one that they weren't going to be able to have forever so while they had it now it was a comfort! They were sitting down to breakfast when the mail came and people opened their letters. Lily got one from Mrs. Potter, she had got used to it and did it almost every week they exchanged a letter. Lily tore off a piece of notebook paper after reading and updated Mrs. Potter on the news of the week and then after giving Harry a treat she sent the letter back and watched as Remus and Sam read the newspaper together, it had become some what of a tradition to them.

Sam's face was bleak as she read something and Remus after looking at what she was reading also showed signs of the bleakness. They looked up at the others. "You guys listen to this!" Sam said and then looked back down and began to read.

"Yesterday night the body of a young woman was found, and is yet unidentified. The cause of death was not that of the dark lord's that we have proofof yet. The young woman was ripped from the inside out as if small objects launched themselves form her body. Should you have any information of anything like this happening in the past of should you find a case similar to this please report it. They have a picture of where it happened but thankfully they didn't have the picture of the woman there. That sounds awful I mean what could have happened to make something like that occur!"

She looked at the others as if thinking they knew but they only shook their heads. Lily slowly took the paper from them a grim look on her face intending to reread it and maybe fit in some research it when she stopped dead at as she saw the tip of the picture of where the woman had died. Remus who still had a hand on it was amazed to find it wrenched out of his arms as Lily pulled it closer to her as she stared long and hard at the photograph then slowly drew back a glazed look on her face.

"James." She said quietly.

James looked over at Lily. "What's wrong?" He asked confused not noticing the way she had looked at the photograph.

"The photograph." Her voice was still quiet.

"What about it?"

"It was my dream?"

"What dream?"

"That dream I had where I screamed. James I witnessed her death!" She said quietly as she continued to stare down at the photograph which showed a small pile of rocks and a single tree split completely down the middle but still standing.

* * *

A/N-Hey guys sorry it took me a while to get this chapter up I hope you liked it. And yes I know I'm evil for leaving it at a cliff hanger what can I say I like messing with you guys :D. Thanx to all of my reviewers!

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Again Thanx so much Luv you guys!  
_Maddie!_


	21. wierd behavior

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Twenty One-

She knew it was yet another dream it was chasing her something you couldn't see or hear something that you weren't even sure that could exist but it filled you with such a feeling of dread that the fear took over your mind and you couldn't think of anything else. It was the same as her other dreams she was in someone else's body and she suddenly came to a clearing and the creature was no longer chasing her there was only a small little house. It wasn't the stone clearing as it had been with her first it was just a small stone cottage looking only able to house one person. As with the stones they seemed to glow and to call to her and although it was against all of her better judgment she stepped forward and placed her hand on it. The pain came worse then the others and she screamed out not only in pain but with magic.

She was awake she knew because James burst through the room but she still felt a presence other then his in her room and as her scream died a huge pulse of her wandless magic erupted from her body like a shockwave. James was slammed back into the wall and several things erupted into slivers spreading throughout the room. Lily was shaking all over not even realizing what had just happened all she could remember was the pain. James got up running over to her concerned, ignoring the huge bump on his own head. And though he called out to her she couldn't quite answer it was as if she wasn't fully aware of her surroundings yet. It wasn't until James gripped her head that she was brought back to reality.

"LILY!" He yelled into her face making her blink.

"James?" She whispered softly and then finally took in the damage of the room. "I had another nightmare didn't I?"

James nodded as he took away his hand. "What is this the second time, but it sounds as if it was a lot worse then the first one." He said as he rubbed his head. Lily turned him around and healed him quickly.

"Yeah it was a lot worse."

See this **WASN'T** the second time it was the fifth, though she hadn't told James or the others. They continued to come and every time it was a different place but the same kind of death. It had been a month since the first dream had come to her and when the things like this showed up in the paper James would ask her if she had dreamed about this one, and for some reason she couldn't bring herself to tell him that she had. Maybe it was the concerned look that he had on his face, like the one he had on now. She just dealt with it, but this one, she remembered the pain and the intensity of it.

By the third one she had remembered all of her dreams. James looked at her and hugged her tight I guess she looked as if she needed a hug. "Lily maybe we should tell Professor Dumbledore. These dreams aren't normal maybe there's a reason you're having them. I mean this one was bad."

"I don't want to James, please don't tell him. This is only the second one, maybe it's just a fluke." Lily said looking around.

James looked reluctant but finally nodded his head yes. "Here I'll help you clean up."

"That's okay." And when she saw his hurt look she pressed foreword. "I need something to do with my hands to steady them, and I need to think this thing through. Thank you James for always being there for me."

She kissed him lightly and he nodded in understanding and then walked back to his own room. Lily slowly shut the door behind him and took a deep breath she began to pick up the pieces that were everywhere. Her hands like she had expected were calming down as she cleaned and her breathing and memories began to become just an awful memory. And as the last sliver was picked up and everything as it was she looked out of her window and slowly asked the question she hadn't asked before.

"What do you want from me Tom?"

* * *

Lily and James sat at the breakfast table the events of last night pushed back in the back of their brains as they laughed and joked. Today was Saturday the day to themselves which was nice because Lily wasn't sure she could handle another day of class work. I mean as much as she didn't mind it the teachers were pushing hard for the N.E.W.T's and it was a lot of pressure. So they were sitting there laughing and joking about things when the mail came and Sam got her newspaper and her face turned grim like it had been a lot this past month.

"There's been another one of those murders. Where something rips them from the inside out." She said quietly. Lily looked away and before Sam could start reading like she usually did she broke in.

"I don't want to hear about it!" She said and James wasn't the only one to notice that her hand shook until she clenched it into a fist to keep them from continuing, but James was the only one who knew why.

"I don't want to hear it either." Meg said taking Lily's side because she too was sick of hearing all about these murders that were baffling everyone.

The rest of the mail came and Lily got some mail surprising her since it wasn't delivered by her owl of that of some one she knew. Not even a Hogwarts owl. She shrugged mentally and opened the letter reading it, and very conscious of the fact that the others were watching her from the corner of their eyes.

She read it thinking quickly and then at the end shrugged to where everyone could see it then closed the letter and resealed it. James looked at the letter and then Lily casual face and felt himself unconsciously relaxing.

"So what was in the letter?"

"Oh an invitation to dump you and go out with another cute seventh year." She said smiling. "I'm still debating on it." She said smiling as everyone's eyes raised and she laughed. At James and kissed him. "Listen I'll catch up to you guys later I have to get something from my room and then I got a previous engagement." She said and walked off.

She made it to her room quickly and tore up the place looking from something and found it she turned around and headed towards the door then realizing she needed the letter she went to the pants she had just been wearing, because she had changed and dug into her pocket realizing it wasn't there. She used an alternate cuss word and ran out the door and down a hallway knowing for a fact that James and the others would have read it she turned down a hallway and was three fourths down it when James turned to corner walking fast. Lily skidded to an abrupt halt and looked at his determined face the letter she hadn't put in her pocket.

It was then that he noticed the look in Lily's eyes there was determination and a fire of anger built up in them. He asked him this question 'when had she gotten so good at hiding her feeling?' then took a step towards her, but Lily was already turning around and racing back to the other hallway when Remus and Sirius appeared at that side and looked at her their chins jutted out stubbornly. Meg and Sam came out of two classrooms on either side of the hallway they had her completely surrounded.

"Lily you need to come with me to Dumbledore's office right now, I mean it Lily." James called out to her as he took slow cautious steps towards her. Lily looked like a deer caught in headlights and looked around for any place to escape when she noticed a window fairly high up but it was her best shot. She looked at James a sorrowful look in her eyes.

"I'm sorry James, but this is something that I have to do!"

And before he could react she ran at the wall used a small little crate set outside the professors door and a bit of her magic and vaulted up to the pier that made part of the ceiling and then she stepped up to the mirror broke it with her fist and jumped out all in a matter of a few seconds.

James cursed and all of them broke out into a run to the front of the building. They had been three stories up, was it possible that Lily couldn't get hurt? It was possible because when they got there, there were only fragments of broken glass a little bit of blood and that was all there was no trace of Lily anywhere in sight.

Lily had used her magic to float down and then she was off. All of the exercising she had been doing came into great affect because her stamina was up and she new she could outrun them. She let the tears of frustration roll down her cheeks, she had hoped that James wouldn't know what she was about to do, she had hoped that she would be back before the sun set, now it didn't matter how long she took they knew where she was going and no doubt they would tell professor Dumbledore, she would only have a few hours at most to herself before they showed up. Hopefully that would be enough!

When she was out of the area that the shield cloaking Hogwarts she stopped to catch her breath and heal her hand which was bleeding, then apparated out of the area back to her hometown and to a small little play ground that was all too familiar. She sat down and checked her watch and waited until the hour struck eleven.

* * *

James, Sirius, Remus, Sam, and Meg after checking the marauders map knew that she had already left the area and shook their heads. There was only one thing that they could do they had to go tell Professor Dumbledore he was the only one that could help them now, get them to the place that they needed to go. James felt anger towards Lily they went to his room real quick when he spotted another letter left hastily for him. He picked it up and read, and watched as pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle come together.

_James,_

_If you're reading this I'm gone, and I know that you're getting some of the pieces pasted together. I know that there is nothing I can do to ever make up that betrayal I'm about to do or already have done. Let me tell you my side of what is going on, I know you must be feeling a great anger but I need you to read this all the way through. The nightmare that I had last night was my sixth, not my second. I've hidden them from you, knowing you would have been worried sick. That's kind of funny since you must be worried sick right now! You can't even imagine the pain in them, I feel what they go though, I have for over a month now, and it's driving me crazy. I know you think I'm going to join him well you're wrong, I'm going to fight him, and maybe I'll succeed. I'm so sorry, and I love you!_

_Lily_

Yes he was worried and he was beginning to see her side of the story. But that didn't stop his resolve he was going to go to Professor Dumbledore. He grabbed both letters, planning on showing both of them to him and ran to his office, the other following him quickly. They said the password and raced up the stairs. He was sitting at his desk sipping at a cup of tea and reading the newspaper. When they entered the spark in his eyes held curiosity at their disarrayed appearance and he beckoned them to sit down.

"Professor we've got a problem." James said through gasps for air.

He set the letter that was Lilys and then the one she had written to him on the desk and watched as he read it, and his face grew tired and alarmed. "I am a little confused Mr. Potter, what exactly are the dreams that both are talking about?" Dumbledore asked as he rubbed his temples.

"Lily's been having dream's for about five weeks now, and it's always the same something's chasing her, something that is pure terror. She comes to a clearing and there is always something in the middle nothing else, and it seems to glow. She touches it and then pain, so unbearable that last night she sent out a magical pulse wave that shattered a lot of things in her room. She dreams of these deaths that have been happening, where they're ripped from the inside out. But it's more then a dream, she becomes that person and feels that pain. She wouldn't let me tell you and she didn't tell me about any of them only the first one."

"I see, well then by all means we must follow her, but I fear we will be too late, and there may be some damage." He said his eyes grave. "Come, we must leave at once." And once again they were out the door and heading towards professor McGonagall's door where professor Dumbledore briefly explained that an emergency had come up and he and these five students would be leaving with him. And before she could ask questions they were out the door once more. The letter on professor Dumbledore's office lay open staring back at nothing and on it the words pierced into everyone's minds.

_Lily-_

_Tired of the dreams, the pain, the constant fear the one more will come? Come to the place we first met, so long ago, and we might be able to strike up a bargain. Then again you can always live with the pain. Be sure to bring a trinket, you also know what I'm talking about. _

There was no name signed, but then there didn't have to be. It was clear who it was from the only question on everyone's mind, was would they get there in time?

* * *

A/N- Hey guys yes I know I'm evil it takes me forever to update and then I leave it off at this cliffhanger. HEE HEE HEE maybe it will motivate me to get to it quicker. Anyways I want to say Thanx to all of my reviewers, you guys are awesome.

-WhiteTiger1992-  
-DDwelling-  
-Animals are my LIFE-  
-Xfrozensorcerer-  
-grannyHPfan- I want to say Thanx especially to you your review was wonderful and helped me a lot. Thank you so much for reading my story.

To everyone sorry that this was a little shorter, I'll try to get my chapters longer. Thanx again!  
_Maddie._


	22. A Magical Duel

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Twenty Two-

Lily gripped her head in her hands and took deep and steady breathes, this was all happening a little too fast for her taste. She sent out a wandless magic wave to check the area and relaxed slightly as she felt no one around, and no magical traps. She glanced quickly at her watch and watched the seconds tick down to eleven o' clock. Just as the minute hand struck twelve a voice from the shadow of the trees right next to the playground called out to her.

"Lily Dear, I'm so glad you could join me!"

Lily stood up quickly and watched as Tom entered the area his hands open and empty, but she knew that his wand was only a second away from his reach. "Did you really think I wouldn't come?"

"My Dear Lily, I have given up trying to understand what you will do. I assumed yes, that the pain would drive you here, but you do have the ability of being a might unpredictable in situations such as these."

"Well I'm here!" Lily decided to keep things short and to the point.

"Then you agree to hear the bargain." Tom said it as a fact, not as a question, and Lily quickly corrected him.

She shook her head. "No Tom, I didn't come to hear the bargain!" His eyebrows raised in question but other then that he did nothing. "I came for the one purpose, and that was to get the dreams to stop!"

"Well to get the dreams to stop, you must first hear the bargain!" Tom said this in his most persuasive of voices but still Lily shook her head.

"No Tom, you should have given up hope on me long before this. I know that you don't want the bargain, what you want is the trinket that I carry!"

This statement brought a small spark of life in Tom's eyes and he smiled, and then actually laughed. "Ah, Lily! You are too smart for your own good. Very well it's the truth I want that trinket, the dreams are my way of making sure I get it!"

"You want the trinket; you're going to have to do something other then stopping the dreams!"

"Oh and what is that?"

"I plan on fighting you Tom; I'm not going to give you the trinket, not without a fight at least. But then I suppose you already suspected this." Lily's eyes held sadness in them, but behind the sadness Tom noted a fire. A fire of determination and one who wanted to do this for reasons that Tom would never understand.

"Yes I suppose I did know that." Tom's eyes also looked sad, but there was also a fire, a fire of yearning for the object Lily carried!

Tome took out his wand and Lily followed a split second afterwards. Tom with a mock smile upon his face saluted Lily, and Lily with seriousness on her face did the same and then with a flash they were at the ready position each of them waiting for the other to make the first move. Lily though knew that if Tom made the first move it would probably be crucio, and she would like to put that kind of pain off for as long as she possible could. Lily pointed her wand at Tom and yelled the first curse that came to her mind.

"PORCEOUS TAMAN!"

A light went off in a dome and instead of going straight towards Tom it went out as if making a bubble and for a second nothing happened. Tom was just opening his mouth, more then likely to mock her when something hit his shoulder and he hissed in pain. He looked down to find a small ball of something he could quite place fall from it. He looked up and cursed as he saw hundreds more make their way to him. He shouted up a shield but before it could fully get up several more made their way through it and hit him, and again he hissed in pain. The others stayed at the borders of his shield and with his wand he repelled them back towards Lily. Lily raised her arm in wandless magic and watched as they hit it and fell uselessly to the ground. Tom smiled and nodded his head in approval, but Lily knew that the real test would now begin. Before Lily could throw another curse Tom yelled his own, and it wasn't crucio as she had been expecting.

"HADRANDAS!"

Lily watched with wide eyes as the ground right in front of Tom's feet raised like a giant tidal wave and made its way towards her. She had no clue as to how she was supposed to avoid, or block something like that so she did the only thing she could think of. She quickly used her wandless magic to strengthen her bones and went flying as it hit her with full strength. She rose in the air at least twenty feet and hit the ground with a thud, but because of her quick thinking the only thing that she would have from that experience was memory and bruises. She shakily got up and yelled again the first thing that came to her mind.

"VERSALIM!"

It was as if an invisible hand came from now where and hit Tom clear in the middle of his chest and he flew back several feet. He skid to a halt, and Lily felt just a second of accomplishment when he saw his eyes wide with surprise, but quickly shoved the feeling to the back of her mind and yelled another curse before he could recover.

"HUTRA!"

The rays that looked like light burst forth from Lily's wand and made their way towards Tom. He narrowed his eyes and dodged two of the three but got caught by the third one and a line of thin red blood appeared across his chest. The two that hadn't hit him turned around and came back; they would do this until they hit something, in which they would disappear. Tom shouted a word and a wooden board was in his hands and he raised it just as the rays would have hit him. The board split in two but the rays were gone and he turned to Lily and shouted his own curse.

"BATARK!" Then right after that he shouted another one. "LORGAW!"

The first one came at her as hers had done to him, it was invisible. A force slammed into her from four different sides and she muffled a scream though her eyes did begin to tear for a second. In fact she had to bite her tongue to keep from screaming, but she wouldn't give him that satisfaction, not if she could help it. She had barley recovered from that one when the next hit her. It was in the shape of a bird, but instead of a cry when it opened it beaks something very much like the objects that Lily had first hit him with came out at her, only with more speed. She raised her hands for a shield in her wandless magic, but several still got through and she yelped as they stung, but unlike hers they continued to sting even when they fell off of her skin. Lily shot a ray of magic at the bird and watched as it hit and several of its feathers floated down. Lily grabbed her shoulder and bit her lip at the pain then sent a soothing magic through her and looked at Tom who seemed a little winded himself.

"Anytime you're ready to quit Lily, all you have to do is say so and give me the trinket, and this will all be like a bad dream!" he said his hands spread out in a questioning figure.

Lily shook her head. "Sorry, Tom, not this time!"

"CERAM FRICE!"

Tom suddenly found himself being pulled by the metal objects like his belt, and watch across from where he had been and towards Lily. He seemed momentarily confused as to why she would bring him closer to her until he picked up speed, and his feet weren't even touching the ground anymore. She moved out of the way quickly dancing to where he had been and his eyes widened once again in surprise as he found himself heading straight for the large tree that she had been standing in front of. The impact left the tree shuddering from the impact, it even creaked lowly and Tom crumpled at the base and stood up shaking himself and glaring at Lily now. Lily knew that all of the chances to turn back left the moment he struck that tree!

"QUADSTO!"

Two of the branches behind him snapped off of the tree that he had just hit and stayed behind him. It was the other cracks all around her that made Lily take a look at her surroundings. Two branched from almost ever tree at the ring around the playground had broken off. Instead of charging at her though they were just hanging there in the middle of the air waiting for Lily's tension to burst, which she very well thought it would. Then in a flash of movement they were soaring towards her. Lily grabbed the first one that reached her and began to swing it like a bat at the others till she could think of something that could dispel them. Lily fell to the ground as one hit her in the back and she actually cursed and moved just in time to only get a scrape on the side of the cheek from another. Finally she shouted the counter curse and watched as they fell uselessly to the ground and Lily wiped her cheek where a small trail of blood was running down it.

Lily used a surprise attack then, wanting to confuse him for a second so she used her wandless magic. Tom suddenly found himself floating in the air and slamming back into the tree that he had been slammed into last time, hard. This happened three more times before Lily finally dropped him. By this time she had soothed her aching and protesting bones, and plugged the spots that had been bleeding. Tom only glared at her but Lily did nothing for a moment, she was getting slightly more drained by that act then she had wished, or hoped, and it looked as if Tom understood this, and was trying to figure out what to do.

Neither of them was going to give up, they continued to yell curses at each other until both of them were battered and not very clean. Both were breathing slightly more heavily then they would have liked and both were staring at each other through a field which looked as if it had been through a battle in the American Civil war. Trees all around them were missing branches and a few of them had completely been ripped from the ground, laying on their sides their roots showing. The actual park with the swings, wasn't too bad, though the merry go round was missing; it was currently off on the side, in a bent twisted shape, having been the object of one of their curses. The sand had been blown every which way, but the swings and other objects were still intact. Lily stood in front of one of the fallen trees and tried to get her breathe back staring at Tom waiting for him to make his move.

"It's time to end this Lily!"

And before she could get the meaning of his words he shouted his final curse and she flew back slamming into the tree and this time, even if she wanted to have screamed she wouldn't have to been able to. All that passed her lips was a gasp of surprise and she looked down. A branch was sticking all the way through her shoulder, and another slightly off to the side, but through the stomach area. Her hands immediately flew to her stomach wound and gripped it, but she was spent there was no way she would have been able to stop the bleeding, at least not with the branch still sticking through her stomach. She looked up at Tom to find him standing ten or so feet away and his eyes sad, but he had done exactly what he said he would. He gave her a fight! A small trickle of blood made it way out of the corner of her mouth and she looked at him and tried to smile, though it was pained.

"I'm sorry Lily!" Tom said calmly.

"No your not!" Speaking was hard and she had to take deep breaths between almost every single word but she was still smiling. She could feel the blood from her stomach trickling between her fingers that were still trying to put pressure on the hole.

"You should have listened to the bargain!"

"You know….even if….I listened…..to it….I wouldn't have….accepted! It's in…..my nature…..Tom; I…..can't help that!"

"Listen, if you give me the trinket, I can heal you, make you to where you won't even remember this! All you have to do is give me the trinket!"

Lily used the last of her wandless magic and felt James, Sirius, Remus, Meg, Sam, and not really to her surprise, Professor Dumbledore coming closer. They were probably five minutes away. Lily looked at Tom and with pained movements she took out something small and tossed it to Tom. He caught it his eyes eagerly looking at it but it stopped cold when he examined what he was holding closer.

"This isn't the trinket and you know it!" His voice was cold.

"I know….I honestly didn't think……that I would succeed….So I rigged it!" She said smiling again.

Just as the meaning of the words finally dawned him the trinket exploded in a backup stock of her wandless magic and he flew away from her landing exactly opposite in another upturned tree. When he finally stood he too had a branch sticking through his shoulders but had escaped any other branches. He took a menacing step forward but stopped and tilted his head as if hearing something. He turned to Lily his eyes full of disgust.

"Your friends are coming; I do believe that it is my time to leave!" He took a step to leave but Lily called out to him.

"TOM!" he turned and looked at her. "Please….for old time's sake…..take the dreams…away!"

He looked at her for a second. "If I take them away, you know what it means!"

"I do!"

"Very well, for old time's sake! Good Bye Lily."

"Goodbye Tom!"

This time he did leave and didn't look back, but then Lily didn't call out to him either. As soon as he was gone Lily coughed several times hunched over as much as possible and when she straightened she wiped away the blood she was coughing up. She knew that she was in serious trouble. She could faintly see the others on their brooms and quickly broke both branches from the trees and stumbled to all fours and once again began to cough up blood. She could faintly see them land, and she wasn't sure if she heard her name or not because as soon as she had finished coughing, she found herself staring at the sky, and then her world went black!

* * *

A/N- Hey guys I am so sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up, especially considering the fact that I left the last chapter up at a huge cliffhanger. I hope this was up to you guys expectations. Thanx to all of my reviewers!

-GrannyHPfan-  
-inky1216- (Thanx for the advice, I'll see if I can work on those problems if not I might just take you up on the offer for the beta! And don't worry I didn't take it the wrong way!)  
-Animals are my LIFE-  
-DDwelling-  
-robster639-  
-firewalker32-  
-Daineandnumairareahotcouple-  
-Sam's Firefly-

Again Thanx so much, I hope you liked the chapter!  
_Maddie._


	23. the next step!

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Twenty Three-

James ran up to Lily the others not far behind him. He picked her up his face a mask of horror at the damage around him and the site of Lily becoming paler with each passing second. She was losing much too much blood, and he wasn't sure if he could stop the flow of it, not with the branches still in her. He looked up at professor Dumbledore who had come beside him and was measuring Lily's pulse. He shook his head only the slightest and then stood up. He made a small bubble appear before him, and from the bubble Professor McGonagall's face appeared.

"Ah, Minerva, we are going to need you to make it safe for up to apparate straight into the hospital wing, Ms. Evans is in critical condition." Professor McGonagall looked as if she was about to ask a question but again professor Dumbledore only shook his head slightly and the bubble disappeared. Professor Dumbledore turned to them and said calmly. "Grab the brooms we are going to apparate into the hospital wing, Make sure you make it!"

They all nodded quietly, the silence almost deafening, and then with the signal from Professor Dumbledore they all apparated at the same time, all of them landing safely in the hospital wing. Madame Anne was waiting there she immediately rushed to Lily and ushered James to set her into the nearest bed. She took one long look at her then turned to the others.

"I want everyone out and the school is to know that the hospital wing will be closed until tomorrow. No exceptions at all!" She said and before anyone else could say something they were bustled out with the door shut in their faces. For a moment none of them knew what to do, they weren't sure how long whatever it was that they were doing was going to take. Should they go get something to eat, wait here, wait somewhere else. They were still standing there when professor Dumbledore came out and noticing them smiled a tired kind of smile.

"Madame Anne is confident that she can stop the bleeding and patch Ms. Evans up, but even if she does this process could very well last through the night. I suggest you try to occupy yourselves somewhere else." He said his voice kind.

After a moment's hesitation, where they all looked at James and he faintly nodded, they went to the heads dormitory and just sat around not sure what to do. They did take a break for dinner, though none of them felt all that hungry and finally they said good night to each other and split. All of them had a fitful sleep, James in particular didn't drift off until close to dawn, and even when he did sleep it was one filled with uneasy dreams. James woke up only a few hours later and took a quick shower to help himself wake up he then headed to the hospital wing. The doors were unlocked and he let himself in. He found Madame Anne putting some potions back into a closet she looked up at him and smiled.

"Good morning James."

"Good morning Madame Anne, how is she?" He said looking over at the covered corner where she was sleeping.

"Still out of it I'm afraid, but she'll make it through, she's very tough. I'm afraid I don't know when she'll wake up though it could be later today, or it could be later in the week, it all just depends." She said quietly.

"But she **is** going to wake up." He asked just as quietly.

"Yes she will." She smiled at James and motioned with her head that he could go see her if he wanted to.

He walked quietly over to the bed, and pulled back the curtain that kept her from the eyes of everyone else, and saw that she looked so much better then she had the day before. She still looked pale, and beaten, there were bruises still despite the fact that with the healing there shouldn't have been. James realized that her injuries must have been serious and Madame Anne probably had to use a lot of herself to fix Lily. The thought made his mood even grimmer then it already was. She was in her pajamas and realized that one of the professors must have picked up a spare pair from the girls room, and that's when he saw her shoulder. There on it was a small slightly white scar, exactly the size of the branch that had been there the day before. James couldn't take it he walked out quickly and stood out in the hallways to collect his breath and try to get his feeling in check. He looked at the door then went to breakfast and then to classes. He told the others that she looked good, and that he was planning on visiting her during lunch. The others were going to join him but they were held up by one of the professors, so it was once again just James walking into the hospital wing only this time a better sight awaited him.

Lily wasn't in her bed she was on the small alcove by the window curled up in a ball and staring through the window. She still looked pale and very tired but she was awake and up. A huge wave of relief swept through him. He must have made a small noise because she looked over at him and when she saw him she quickly looked away and James realized that she was nervous, or anxious. He came over and sat down next to her and the silence beginning to stretch between them. He opened his mouth to say that he was glad to see her awake but what came out instead was.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Lily looked at him and blinked. "I didn't want you to worry." Her voice was a little hoarse. "I thought the dreams would go away. And I knew that if I showed you the letter you'd have tried to stop me, and I couldn't afford that."

"What if I said I just wanted to come with you?" James stood back up needing to move around instead of sitting still.

"It wouldn't have worked, Tom would have known, he wouldn't have shown up, and I would still have the dreams."

"Did you ever think Lily that even though you gave him what he wanted he might not stop the dreams anyway?"

"He wouldn't have done that."

"Oh and why not." All the anger James had felt before Lily left was coming back to him now.

"Because he gave me his word, not the word of Voldemort, but of Tom Riddle my cousin. And I know that that might not mean anything to you, but it does to me because he never went back on his word no matter what."

James just shook his head then in a quiet and very strained voice he said. "I can't do this Lily…..I just can't keep doing this!" he was looking down refusing to meet Lily's gaze.

Lily was quiet for moment then said quietly too. "It's okay James, I understand." He looked up at her but she was smiling a tired looking smile. "You don't have to feel guilty." He looked as if he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words. "Good-bye James." Lily said at last. James nodded his head and then turned and left. Lily turned her head to stare out the window again, and the minute the door shut and his footsteps disappear she let the first tear fall, and then the next until there was a steady stream flowing down her face.

Madame Anne who had heard the entire conversation came up to Lily and in a gentle voice asked "Lily is there anything I can get you." Lily looked up at Madame Anne and smiled a shaky smile.

"May I take a shower, I feel suddenly very dirty."

"Of course, just let me water proof those bandages for you and you can take as long a shower as you want."

Lily did take a long shower, and when she finally got out she felt a little better though her eyes still looked red and puffy, she was just settling down into her bed with a book when a commotion from the doorway brought her attention. Meg, Sam, Remus, and Sirius came in and seeing her awake ran over with loud yells despite the glares Madame Anne was throwing them, though she wasn't going to throw them out.

"Hey Lily!" Meg said carefully hugging her conscious of all of her bruises; the others did the same thing. "How are you feeling?"

"Well considering the beating I took pretty good."

They laughed at this. "We saw James and tried to get us to come here with us but he said he couldn't he had something to do for a teacher." Meg's voice was scornful but she decided not to comment on it.

"That's okay he came and saw me earlier." She smiled largely, she was sure James hadn't told them, and she wouldn't be the one to ruin it for the others. She wasn't at all sure that they would understand his reasoning.

Sam looked closed at her and said quietly "Have you been crying?"

"Yeah, I hit one of my bruises while getting out of the shower and it hurt, pretty badly." They accepted the explanation, though she was thinking that Remus maybe saw through her pretences.

"So when is Madame Anne going to let you out?" Sirius asked as they all glanced at the nurse who was busy ignoring them.

"Maybe the day after tomorrow, I'm pretty sure not tomorrow, I still get a little dizzy so I think the day after tomorrow will be my best shot!" She said smiling.

"Well then we'll have to plan something special. But we have to get to class so we'll come see you later today promise!" Remus said, and then they all gave her another round of hugs, then left. When they did come back later she was sleeping peacefully!

* * *

Lily was released the day after tomorrow as she had thought, since the dizziness had all but disappeared, and she was looking better too. Everyone else was in their classes; she was excused for the rest of the week though Sam had picked up all her work. She was finished with most of it so instead she slipped into the heads dormitory, to her room, where she picked something up and then walked quietly towards Professor Dumbledore's office. She said the password then took the stairs up and knocked quietly at the door not at all sure that he would be up there but his voice called out for her to enter. She did so and when Professor Dumbledore saw her he smiled.

"Ah, Ms. Evans it is good to see you up and about, I hope you are feeling better?"

"Very much thank-you professor." She was quiet for a second not sure how to continue but with and encouraging nod from Dumbledore she went on. "If you have a while to spare I'd like to tell you the story from the beginning." She said quietly as she sat down at one of the chairs.

"I would very much like to hear this thank you!"

So Lily began her tale, of how Tom had rescued her, the things that happened between them, her promising to stop him. She told him about when the first dream happened a few days before it came out in the paper, and then she described the dreams. She told him of the letter, which he handed back to her when she was finished. "I thought that if I could convince him somehow that he could come back to being a cousin, a nice one. You can't blame a cousin for hoping can you professor?"

"Not at all Ms. Evans, no one is pure evil, so there is always hope. I myself wish the same thing to happen." He said quietly. Lily took the thing she had gotten from her room and set it on his desk.

"This is what he wanted, I didn't bring it, and I don't know why he has such an attachment to it. It was his journal from school he said, but it's empty and blank. I would like for you to keep it." She said and sat back her hands in her lap.

"Thank-you Ms. Evans, I will do that for you."

"Professor, if I wanted to help stop these murders, would you think me trying to be a hero?" She asked quietly almost afraid of the answer she would receive.

"Not at all Ms. Evans, I think it would be you, trying to do all that you can do."

She smiled. "I want to help, can you think of any way that I can?"

"I can think of one way, but it's one I would not suggest lightly. But…..for you I think it might just be the right thing. Especially considering that relationships are beginning to fray a little at all the stress." Lily looked at him a little surprised. "I am not just talking about Mr. Potter, your friends are feeling this too, but you should not blame yourself, no one can fault you for doing what you believe was right." He took out a small sheet of paper and handed it to Lily, on it was information on a small branch of the government she had never heard of.

"That branch of the government is called the Hunt organization. They are in charge of searching and hunting down things that commit terrible crimes, but unlike Auroras they do it out of the spot light. They are the ones that are in charge of finding your murderer. I happen to know the supervisor, and I think that he would be more then welcome to have you aboard one of his teams, and I believe that you could handle it. It also might do you some good to get out of this castle for a while! The choice though is up to you!"

"If I decided to do this when would I leave, and would I be coming back?"

"You would leave in four to five days perhaps three. And you would of course come back, you still have to graduate." Professor Dumbledore said smiling.

Lily smiled back. "Then I think that I would like to do this." She said looking down at the piece of paper once more.

"Very well I will get you all the information tomorrow, and you should begin packing. I will tell the school the morning you leave that you will be helping a government organization, so no questions will be asked!"

"Thank you so very much professor Dumbledore."

"Not at all Ms. Evans! Now you run along and start getting ready."

Lily did just that only she didn't do what professor Dumbledore thought she would do, as in packing clothes and things, no she went to the library to try and think of just what that thing could be. The librarian smiled at her and she smiled back and went to one of the shelves near the back close to the restricted section. At that moment, James and Remus walked in and saw her there; Remus looked closely at James and saw that he was trying to pretend that he hadn't seen her. Everything came together to him then he looked at James, then back at Lily, who really hadn't seen them, in fact she looked a little nervous anyways.

"You broke up with her didn't you?" Remus said quietly as they sat down at a table. James looked away not meeting his gaze and Remus just shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something when movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Lily was slipping between some shelves, out of the view of the librarian, and the two of them watched as she lightly touched the lock to the restricted section, and watched as the lock clicked silently open. She squeezed through and relocked it then walked through the shelves, and out of their view. James and Remus looked at each other thinking the same thing 'what was she doing in the restricted area?'

Lily meanwhile went to the section that had the books of strange unexplained happening involving creatures. She made a small bubble around it with her wandless magic and grabbed it opening it, all the magic in check because of the bubble. She thought of the creature that had chased her so many times in her dreams, then opened up to the first page. She placed her hand over, thought of all the characteristics and then the pages in front of her moved on their own until they landed on a page. She read it but it still didn't seem to fit. She made a copy of it though and a page floated out of the bubble. She grabbed it and set it next to her book then continued on, two more times this happened and both times she made a copy of the page setting it with the others. She put the book back then took off the bubble, grabbed the pages and folded them then quietly and quickly went to the entrance tucked the lock and slipped out. She went back to the section she had been and picked a random book placing the folded pages within them the hiding them with her magic.

She grabbed the book and was walking out when she saw Remus and James; she smiled at them but hurried on to the librarian. She smiled at Lily, checked the book out, and then Lily was racing outside. The only way you could get unchecked pages of the restricted section without permission was to hide them in another book. Lily had found that out last year. She walked over to the tree and sat underneath it, setting the book aside after she had gotten out the pages that she had copied. She laid them one on top of the other, after she had folded them separately and then using her magic she hid them with her hands and then spread her hands out, only this time instead of the pages there was a creature that was dripping ooze. This is what the creature would look like if it was all three of those creatures on the paper was combined. She had heard that it could be done, but she wasn't sure that anyone knew how. Of course Tom would have found a way. She was pretty sure that this was the creature that did the herding.

She wasn't sure how long she stood there examining it but she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. She made the creatures disappear, grabbed the papers and quickly set them back in the book. She turned to see Remus approaching her. He sat down next to her and she smiled, until he reached for the book and shook the papers out.

"You saw me go in the restricted section?" She asked.

"Yeah, I was curious as to what would make you break a rule!" He was still smiling as he unfolded the papers and looked at them. "So doing extra credit for a class or something?"

"Something like that." Lily said quietly.

Remus looked over at her. "So do you want to talk about it?" She looked at him looking confused. "About you and James." He said quietly. She looked at him again.

"There's not much to say. I understand and there's nothing I can do. He's realized that with me it will never be a normal relationship. I tend to keep secrets, because I believe that in doing so I can protect people from what they don't want to hear. I can't blame him for not being able to handle that."

"It still doesn't seem fair though."

"That's okay Remus, you and me know that life's not fair." He looked at her to see she was smiling, and he had to smile too.

"So what are these papers really for, I can tell by the way your going about all secret like that it's got to be important and probably linked as to why you went and faced Tom the other day. Mind if you let me in on the secret?"

"If I tell you, you can't tell anyone else no matter what. I don't want them to know until it's announced."

"Announced?" She looked at him and realized that she wasn't going to say anything else unless he promised. "Fine I promise I won't tell anyone."

"I'm leaving in about four days. Professor Dumbledore is setting up for me to go with a government organization that's hunting whatever is killing these people, the ones like my dream. I'm not sure when I'll come back, probably not until we find whatever's doing this. But I'm looking forward to it, because it means that I'm helping in any way that I can! I just can't tell the others because I don't think that they would understand. Professor Dumbledore's going to announce to the school that I'm leaving to work with the government for a while, though I will be coming back to graduate for sure!"

Remus was quiet for a while not sure how to take the news, then he looked down at the pieces of paper. "This doesn't explain the papers, I thought it was just one creature that was chasing you in your dreams?" Remus watched as she visibly relaxed at his reaction and took the papers folded them again and then showed him the creature with her magic.

"I think Tom created this creature by combining the three of those, as far as I can see. I'm not sure though, it's only a hunch but if anyone could do something like that it would be Tom!"

"I see, I only have one thing really to say, and that's don't get yourself killed okay."

Lily smiled. "I'll try not to!" she hugged him then went inside with him. She went to the heads dormitory to find that no one was there. She closed her door locking it and walked over to Ella her dragon and Harry she petted them both and draped Ella over her shoulder, like the holographic dragon loved. Harry on the other hand sat on the other shoulder occasionally preening Lily's hair. Lily began to pack a small little bag, it was the kind that the army used, she couldn't even remember where she had gotten, but she left several outfits there, and spread them out to where it looked less obvious. She planned on taking her dragon and her owl with her, if Dumbledore said it was okay. She shoved the bag to the back of her closet, ready for her to grab it when she needed to then got to work on what was left of her class work.

The next few days passed quickly. The last night at Hogwarts, she spent the night in the Hospital wing, having taken her bag there earlier. It was the easiest place for her to get out from. She had told the others that she hadn't been feeling good, only Remus knew the truth and he had kept her secret just like he said he would, though Lily thought he was tempted to tell the others. When she didn't show up to the breakfast they assumed she was still in the hospital wing, though when the doors began to close after the last few people arrived, James was sure that he saw someone who looked like her leave through the front doors with a bag in her hand, but he dismissed it. What surprised everyone was that professor Dumbledore showed up before the food and stood at the podium.

"I would like to make an announcement; Ms. Evans will be gone for a while as she has been offered a position to work closely with a government organization. So if you notice her absence, then this is the reason why. Thank-you and enjoy your breakfast!"

The hall was filled with a stunned silence and immediately the whispers began. James looked as if he had been punched straight in the gut. The others were looking the same way. Lily was waiting outside with a man at this moment talking to him, he would be her boss his name being Alex, and already he was telling her of his two daughters that were also in Hogwarts, he seemed like a cheerful kind of guy.

"Where are we going to be heading?" She asked since they seemed to be waiting for transportation.

"Were gonna head up to Hogsmeade where the rest of the team is waiting where you will tell us just why our supervisor seems to think were gonna need you." There was no disbelief he just said it as if those were someone else's words. "And if I do say so myself you look like you're ready for action!" he said this chuckling.

It was true Lily was dressed in combat boots that went all the way up to just below her knee and was wearing a flippy jean skirt, one that was very easy to run in and a t-shirt. She only smiled. He handed her two sheathes that had knives about the size of her leg, well from foot to the knee area.

"We never know when we're going to get called into action so keep these on you at all times." Lily nodded and strapped them to her combat boots. All she had to do was lift her leg and she could have it within a second. He nodded his acceptance, and they would have talked more but a voice calling Lily's name made them both turn and look. James was coming towards her and she looked at Alex.

"Do you want me to send him away?" He asked seeing some sort of inner struggle in her.

"No that's okay I knew this would come up." She set down her bag and walked over to him, though she stopped a little distance between them.

"Were you planning on telling anyone?"

"Not really."

"Do you have to do this? He asked in a quiet almost pleading voice.

"Yeah, it's something I want to do, not because I feel obligated, but because it's something I **want** to do."

"Lily the carriage is here!" Alex called out quietly, she turned and nodded, and he threw her bag in. Lily turned and looked back at James and before he could react she walked up to him gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Good bye James." And then she was clambering into the carriage and he watched her go, and then slowly walked back into the building!

* * *

A/N- hey guys sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up especially considering the way that I left it off, try not to hurt me. But because it was such a long time, I made sure to make this one nice and long. I hope you guys liked it! I wanna say thanx to all of my reviewers,

-Sam's Firefly-  
-firewalker32-  
-Animals are my LIFE-  
-Inuyahsa.and.kagome.4eva.554-  
-Lady FireMage-

Again thanx so much you guys are the best  
_Maddie!_


	24. The Hunt Orginization

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Twenty Four-

Lily didn't look back towards the school again, she was going to focus only on what was happening and what was going to happen. Alex looked at her closely but didn't comment on anything. She looked up at him and smiled.

"So you have two daughters that are going to Hogwarts?" She asked since she didn't want to go all the way to Hogsmeade silently. Not when he also seemed to enjoy talking as much as he did.

"Yes, both are in Ravenclaw. A third year, Elizabeth, and the fourth year, Maggie." He said his face becoming that of a proud and doting father. He talked about their studies then his face dropped a little.

"You don't get to see them much do you?"

"No my job keeps me away from home a lot in the summer and even on their breaks but I try my hardest."

"I'm sure they realize that."

"Well I hope so."

Lily smiled at him again, and then jerked when the carriage came to a halt. She looked out the carriage window to see that they had arrived in the Hogsmeade station. There were three other people waiting on the platform. Two guys and a girl, all with knives on them like the ones that Lily had been given. They looked to be in their twenties, tough, and not all that thrilled to have another join their crews. But then Lily didn't have to be liked she just had to help in any way that she could and that would be enough for her. Alex exited first and grabbed the bag from the carriage then Lily came out ignoring their criticizing eyes. She took the bag from Alex then looked at them in the eyes.

"This her?" The girl said in a tone that said she didn't think very highly of Lily but Lily wasn't going to be baited or rise to a challenge.

"This is Lily Evans; she will be joining us until we find this monster. According to Dumbledore and our boss, she could very well have some information that will be of use to us. So we will go get a bite to eat then head out to where this thing was recently spotted. Everyone okay with that." He looked at them and raised a single eyebrow and the others shook their heads a little reluctantly Lily noted but said nothing.

She fell in behind them and ignored their glances when they stole a glance back at her. They entered a tavern and sat down taking menus from the waitress who took their orders for their drinks then waited for them to make up their mind. Lily found herself sitting between Alex and the only other girl. She would have probably started a conversation with Alex but bit her tongue instead and decided that she wouldn't speak unless spoken to until she got more comfortable around the others. The waitress came back took their orders and then the silence continued since no one knew what to say. Finally Alex turned slightly in his chair to where he was looking at her.

"Okay Lily why don't you tell us why you're now one of the team and what you can bring to it?"

Lily was silent for a moment. "What do you most want to know about?" She said since there were so many different aspects of what was going on with this mission that she wasn't sure where she should start out.

"Well number one, why do you think you can outsmart the dark lord when no one else has so far. What makes everyone so confident that you have information we can use?"

"Because I've been there at every murder." She said calmly her face never twitching. The others were silent looking at her as if she was crazy. She was silent for a second then went on. "My cousin is Tom Riddle, Voldemort." A few of them twitched at the sound of his name but otherwise their faces remained carefully blank. "About a few days before the first murder I had a dream. I was a young woman, running from something that scared me some creature. I was in a forest, but the creature stopped at the edge of it when I broke loose from the trees. In the middle of a clearing there was a formation of rocks and a tree split in half but still standing. They were glowing though and when I touched them something inside me screamed and ripped me from the inside out."

"You could have just gotten that from the paper." The girl said, determined not to believe her.

"Fine you've only released three of the murders to the public, but there was been six altogether. I can describe every single one to you in great detail." She said quietly.

They were silent for a moment and the waitress brought the food for them to eat. Lily dug into hers because she knew that only more questions could follow what she just said and she wanted to eat some of her breakfast while it was hot. The waitress moved on and Lily looked back up at them after taking a few more bites to eat.

"You said you're the cousin of Tom Riddle?" One of the men said quietly.

"Yes."

"Then how do we know you're not working for him?" The girls said her eyes hard and distrusting.

"You don't, however if you'd like me to strip down so you can search me for a dark mark I can do that. I will also willingly submit to any truth potions you would prefer to give me. Then again after our last meeting I can give you proof otherwise."

Lily pulled the sleeve of her shirt down revealing the white scar that she had spent some time looking at it in the past few days. She then stood up and lifted her shirt showing her stomach and the other scar running along side of it, not to mention the bruises and other cuts that were still healing. She sat down and began to eat once more while the continued to think on what they had just seen.

"You said that it wasn't the creature that killed them?" Alex asked quietly after some time while they picked at their food.

"That's right, it's the object, and the creatures are merely the tools to get them to where Tom wants them."

"I see, that does help narrow it down, but the problem is, even if we can predict when this is going to happen next we have to deal with the creatures." Alex said quietly to himself, as if it helped him to think aloud rather than silently like most people.

"But if we stop the creatures wouldn't that stop the killing since it's driving the person to the place. I mean if we kill it the person can stop running." The other man said the one who had previously not talked.

"Won't work. These people were running on pure fear and the adrenaline that comes with it. Not only that but the object calls to them, when they first put their eyes to it they fall into some kind of a trance. They are not aware of anything other then the object." Lily said quietly.

All of them looked at her wondering if they liked this or not. Sure the information was helpful, but the fact that the rookie was telling them it wouldn't work, and that Lily was only seventeen did nothing for their ego's or way of thinking. Lily though was not about to stop talking just because of the intimidating looks she was receiving. If the information that she had could help in any way she was going to speak up no matter what the consequences. She however did listen quietly as they talked of other strategies since the new information lily gave them added problems to their already growing list of them. Lily finished her breakfast and lowered her hands into her lap, she found herself unconsciously tracing her stomach scar as she thought of all the things the others were saying. The girl next to her watched this from the corner of her eye and you could tell by them that she was also thinking, not so much at the problem at hand but about this newbie whom she still couldn't bring herself to trust.

The others finally quieted down and finished their meals which had been steadily getting cold and Alex looked over at Lily and smiled. "Right I never introduced you to these here fellows. That's Hazel." Who did nothing and therefore Lily did nothing. "And these guys are Gerald and Erik." Both of them nodded at the same time and Lily returned the nod. "We'll be heading out soon so are their any questions?"

"Am I allowed to right letters to my friends at Hogwarts?" She asked since she knew she was going to want to real soon since she was already missing them terribly. Dumbledore had told her just yesterday before that it would be prudent to leave Ella and Harry behind so she had left a letter to all of them asking them to look after the two so she would also want to know about them.

"You can, but there are some conditions. You can not name anyone by name, talk about the mission, or your current position." Alex looked dead serious about this. "Understood?"

"Yes." Short and to the point, all of a sudden as if somehow they heard her wave patterns a black owl swooped in from the open window and landed on Lily's shoulder chattering angrily like a mother to her kids. Lily looked at Harry and then back at the others whose eyes were wide. "I'm so sorry, I left him at Hogwarts, and he must have followed me."

"Isn't that one of the death owls that the ministry uses?" Erik asked his eyes wide.

"He was, I bought him from the ministry." Lily said slowly and began to look a little embarrassed at the looks she received from this news.

"You bought him?" Gerald said in an incredulous voice.

"Well yes he gave me two letters and I kind of grew attached to him, so I wrote a letter to the ministry asking if I could purchase him."

"He brought you two letters?" Hazel asked quietly something actually close to kindness in her voice.

"Yes, one for the death of my parents the other for the death of my aunt who looked after me and my sister." She was about to add something when another thing flew threw the window and on her other shoulder landed Ella just as mad and irate as Harry had been and this time she did blush.

"I take it this one belongs to you also." Alex said leaning closer to look at Ella.

"Yes I'm so sorry--"

Alex shook his head. "You can't be blamed it's obvious they followed you, and are quite mad at you leaving them. As long as they stay quiet when they need to then I don't see a problem."

"Thank you!" She looked Ella and suppressed a glare. Alex took out his money and paid for it, made sure he got the receipt so he could get his money back from the ministry and walked out of the tavern the others following. The headed up, close to the mountain and farther away from Hogsmeade and Lily couldn't help but wonder where they were heading. I guess Erik must have seen it on her face because he smiled an understanding smile.

"We're heading to a cave up here, it's a safe spot for us where we will be transferred to the last place the creature and the deaths were."

"Transferred how?" Because Lily could apparate but it was not her most favorite way to travel. She couldn't stand the way it felt and it made her slightly nauseous.

"A spell that basically does what a port key does. Only we don't have to touch anything we simply have to be in what we call a safe spot at the right time."

"You mean like an Agrazious spell?" Lily asked, she had read about it in a book she had checked out from the library. Her charms professor had mentioned it to her and she had found a lot of interesting spells.

"Exactly like that, you know about those spells?" Gerald said looking a little happier to find out that she appeared not to be a complete idiot.

"I read about, my professor gave me a book about it, and other things like that."

The conversation stopped there as they needed their breathe since the terrain took a sharp turn upwards. Lily made no complaint or sound of protest instead she stroked Ella on the head who was just now beginning to calm down from being left behind. Harry was going to sleep on her other shoulder and she stroked him to when she got the chance. Despite the fact that she had apologized a lot to Alex she was still very glad that they had followed her, she would have missed them desperately. It took another ten minutes or so to reach the cave and they all filed in and went to stand what Lily assumed was the middle of the cave though it was hard to tell since it wasn't in a circle but an odd uneven shape. She joined them, and tried not to ask questions in case that wasn't allowed at this time or something. She probably would have but there was just a vibe going around as if the others didn't want to talk and she soon knew why.

When the spell took hold of them it was without warning. It seemed as if the area around them had completely shattered and everything was disappearing into black on all sides. You could hear air whipping past you with such speed that it did seem that once this was over you would probably be deaf. And then in the matter of a second you were somewhere else, the place you were supposed to be and it seemed as if the ground was shuddering underneath you and there was all together too much color. To Lily's amazement, much more then all the other things, Ella and Harry didn't seem to mind this in the least. Harry was in fact still asleep and Ella looked as if she was close to joining Harry. Lily blinked her eyes several times, as if they weren't in focus and then looked at the others to see that they were grimacing as if they too didn't like what they had just gone through. Lily reminded herself to never try that spell since one of the things she was planning on doing eventually was to do just that but not anymore.

To the left of the group there was a small campsite and several people. It looked to be hunt groups since they all had the same kind of knives and they traveled in groups of four or five also. They had looked up at the entrance of this group and several people, though looking tired and worn with exhaustion waved merrily to Alex and the others. More than one of them noticed that they had added someone to the group but Lily did her best to ignore their stares. Alex led them to a small set of tents and the others went to a certain one immediately. Alex beckoned Lily over to one that looked to have been just erected.

"This is your tent, go ahead and drop your stuff off and then we'll go out and examine the area, there was a murder her yesterday so most of the clues are still slightly fresh." He began to walk away then stopped and looked at her. "You don't have a weak stomach do you?"

"I don't think so." Lily said looking slightly confused.

"Okay well if you do, I'm just warning you but you might throw up at one point or another then."

Lily was silent for a second. "Okay." Was the only thing she could say because she wasn't sure how else to respond to a comment like that. Lily dropped her stuff right next to the cot that in the tent and poked Harry gently who woke up with a ruffling of feathers.

"Stay and guard my pack okay?" She said quietly waving her wand and creating a stand for him. He stared back at her his beady black eyes accusation all over them and she sighed an exasperated sigh. "I promise I'll come back, otherwise I wouldn't leave my stuff here!" Harry looked at her for a few more seconds then hooted once and began to drift off to sleep again.

Lily with Ella still draped over her shoulder walked back out to see that Alex was over near the beginning of the trees where the forest that surrounded them began. He was talking to hazel in a manner that was obviously very passionate and then cut her off saying something sharp. After that he said nothing instead he looked around and spotting Lily smiled though it looked somewhat forced in her opinion.

"Ah Lily good, we're going to show you some things come along now." He said and she trotted to meet where they were. They began to walk into the forest and a few seconds later the footsteps approached them from behind and Erik and Gerald caught up with them. Lily looked at them and when they noticed both of them raised their eyebrows in exactly the same way.

"Are you brothers?" She asked quietly since they looked a lot alike. Both were tall around six two and had light brown hair though the styles were different from each others. Erik had hazel eyes, and Gerald an amber sort of color. They could have passed as a slightly older version of what the marauders would be since there was a small glint in their eyes that Lily had recognized from Sirius's when he was in his best of moods.

"No, just childhood friends." Erik said laughing.

"Although we get that question a lot more then we expected. I didn't think we looked all that much alike." Gerald said joining Erik in his laughter.

Lily smiled at the two but said nothing else as the line came to a halt. Alex spoke up from the front of the line now. "Alright you three spread out and keep looking for more clues and anything else we can send back to get more information on. Lily come with me and I'll show you what we've got and explain some things, answer questions."

Lily nodded her head and the others split up into different directions. Alex headed the same way they had been heading and Lily followed looking around to see that there were several people around the forest with all sorts of things in their hands. The Hunt organization was bigger then she had thought. She wasn't sure what she had expected but it hadn't been this many people. They had been walking only a minute or two when something caught Lily's eyes. It was an alarming color of bright green, more so then the leaves around it, and it looked like a play goop or something that she had played with as a kid. Lily stopped to kneel and get a better look at it.

"What is this?" She looked over at Alex who stopped and then walked back to get a better view of what she was looking at.

"That is something that we have found at every sight, we think that it's something that the creatures left behind, some kind of secretion that it gives off. It might be its kind of blood but since we haven't so much as got a picture of this thing we can't tell."

"Can the people at the creatures department not figure out what it comes from?" Lily asked as she looked at the goop closer since it looked oddly familiar.

"No the properties in them come from three different creatures, but that's about all they can narrow it down."

"Three?" If possible she uttered the word even more quietly than she had done so with the other questions.

"Yes, why?" Alex was looking confused as to why three would matter.

Lily looked up at Alex and he could tell that she was hesitating. "If I show you something and it ends up being right can you not mention my name in the finding of it?" As if Alex got the gist of why she was asking he smiled and nodded. Lily took out the three papers that she had taken from the library and handed them to him. "I took those pages out of a book from the restricted section of the library at Hogwarts."

"With permission?" Alex said smiling as if he already knew the answer.

"Not exactly."

"I see, and what about these three."

"Well when you combine them, they become something else entirely." She paused then continued on. "To show you this, I'll have to show you another secret I'd prefer not to be shared."

"Okay." Lily took the pages from his hand but used her wandless magic and he looked at her in surprise. "Wandless magic?" he asked quietly.

Lily nodded. "I put these together, because in my dreams I remembered things about the creature that was chasing me. And I came up with these three, which combine into this one creature." Lily laid the papers over each other then hid them and brought her hands out to show that the papers were gone and a creature now took its spot. And dripping from the creature was the same goop that was next to Lily's foot at that very moment.

Alex kneeled next to her and took a good look at it, slowly he nodded. "Yes, I see now why you went with it. Voldemort is one of the most powerful wizards if anyone could do this it would be him." He looked over at Lily to see that she looked slightly surprised and guessing her train of thoughts smiled. "I am one of the few that don't mind saying his name, but it did take a bit of help from Dumbledore to do so."

After examining it a little longer she returned the papers and handed it to Alex who would pass it along. He informed Lily all the things that he knew, which included that the goop was in fact bad for the skin since it thrived on eating the flesh of anyone who touched it. It made her thankful that she hadn't been stupid enough to try and touch it. She viewed other tings and once or twice she was surprised that she did in fact not throw up since some of the things she witnessed were gruesome indeed. Although this did seem to raise her up in the eyes of hazel, but then again Lily was sure it would take a lot more points for Hazel to like her completely then simply not throwing up. By the time she got to her tent she was exhausted and in no mood to eat. Harry was awake and after hooting at her a few times he took off to hunt since the sun was finally going down.

Although Lily was exhausted there was something she wanted to do before she went to sleep. She took out her duffle bag and grabbed a journal that she had brought with her, turned to an empty page and began a letter to home.

_To the Gang, _

_How is everything going with you guys, not sure when this will reach you, and I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner that I was leaving, but I think it's for the better it will give us time to clear our heads. It's my first night away from Hogwarts and already I am homesick and miss you guys, but I can write to you whenever I want so I suppose it's not as bad as it could be. I can't tell you anything, only that it's a good thing that I don't have a weak stomach because otherwise the contents of my stomach would no longer be there! _

_Don't worry about Ella and Harry they ended up following me, giving me an earful and lots of glares while they were at it. That shoudl make you feel betters since I am sure that you would be doing the same had you the chance. I hope that you all feel the hug which I am currently imagining giving you and a kiss to all of you. Write to me if you find the chance, I'm sure it will be able to reach me and I'll write as much as I can. Miss you more that you can imagine!_

_Lily._

Lily signed the note and looked at torn between wanting to cry and happy that she had left because things were getting a little stressed there and she knew it was mostly her fault. She put it in an envelope after folding it and then sealed it. She went out and found Alex quickly and with a nod from her he read just to make sure there was nothing in it he would prefer it not to mention. He smiled at her resealed it then used an owl. She watched it disappear from sight glad that she knew it would eventually reach them then went to bed. She didn't even manage to slip into pajamas before she was asleep though she could remember a little time later Harry coming and perching on the side of the bed and going to sleep, with Ella right above her head.

* * *

A/N- Hey guys I am so sorry that I haven't written, busy getting a job then getting fired since I refused to go to work with strep throat. And among other things, but it was still evil of me for not writing sooner since I did leave you guys off on a really good part. Well I hope you can forgive me and I want to say thanx to all of my reviewers. I'll try to get chapters up on my other stories.

-Sam's Firefly-  
-tora.of.the.sand-  
-firewalker32-  
-Animals are my LIFE-  
-Koffee Krazy-  
-MiXeDuPmEsSeDbOoKs-  
-SugarHi Marauders-

Again thanx so much and I hope you liked this chapter!  
_Maddie_


	25. running

-The Writer

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

-Chapter Twenty Five-

Two weeks passed before the letter Lily had written reached the gang back at Hogwarts. They read the letter eagerly wondering what had happened in between the time she had written this, especially after they had read the weak stomach comment. They got out some paper the moment after Sam finished reading it out loud and took turns writing her when they passed it to James he hesitated, not sure what he was going to say. He ended up putting something fairly generic and grimaced at the feel of writing it but handed it anyways to Sam who was the next in line. She looked at what he had written and glanced his way.

"That's all you're going to say?" to which his only response was to shrug. Sam looked at him as if trying to figure out a problem and as her eyes lighted up and her face grew shocked he knew she had figured out what James couldn't find the guts to say earlier.

"You broke up with her!" She said shocked.

James looked away and Meg and Sirius stopped what they were doing and looked over at James. Sam opened her mouth to say something else but Remus put a gentle hand over her mouth and shook his head. James saw this out of the corner of his eye and felt a wave of relief. He got up and walked upstairs rather than stay there where they were still staring at him bewildered.

"How could he?" Meg and Sam asked at the same time as soon as he was out of sight. What they didn't realize was that he stayed at the top of the stairs to see what they were going to say.

"Don't judge him." Remus said quietly. "Lily doesn't blame him, and she would hate that you guys do." This surprised everyone and they all looked at him.

"How would you know?" Sirius asked, not trying to be a smart alec but wondering how he could say it with such conviction.

"I talked to her a few days before she left." Remus said, finally admitting his own secret.

"You knew she was going to leave?" Meg asked she looked a little hurt.

"Only because I found her sneaking into the restricted section in the middle of the day. She made me swear to secrecy otherwise I would have told all of you." He paused. "She said it was better this way because she thought that everyone needed some air, a time to be away from the weirdness and madness as she called it." She had said that when he had visited her alone in the hospital wing the night before she left.

Everyone was quiet and James was a little stunned that he had known before everyone else. He finished his way up not wanting to hear anymore. Sirius finally looked at their pile of class work that they still had to finish. "Well I kind of envy her at the moment." He said with a grin and the others couldn't help but grin also. "We had better get to work."

* * *

Lily meanwhile was as busy as one would expect. There were times when the days past in a blur and she could only remember certain parts of the day. Then there were others when the day passed so slowly. They had found another victim and had collected more samples, but there was no pattern, it was completely random and there was no knowing when the next attack would happen or where. This brought on lots of frustration and a feeling of hopelessness in the camp that often had to be squashed and the spirits of the people hoisted. One of the main entertainments of the camp was surprisingly Lily's owl and dragon. Harry had such a personality that the people loved to watch him, especially when he was with Lily. He was almost like a mother when he scolded Lily for doing something or when she came back hurt, which occasionally happened.

Lily and her team were getting along okay that is in the work area, the actual relationships were varied. Alex and Lily got along great, he looked to her as a source for learning about his two daughter's daily life, and he was a source of information and friendship that at the beginning she had a little trouble finding. Gerald and Erik she got along with great, they were like slightly more grown up then the marauders but that was pretty much the end of the differences. It unnerved them at first the way that Lily was able to handle whatever they threw at her, and they did test her, but were able to console themselves when she showed them a few tricks also. Hazel on the other hand was still as stand offish towards her as the first day even though two weeks had passed. But then Lily didn't try to kiss up to her, all she had to do was help.

Lily was asleep when the day began, but it wasn't filled with good dreams instead she was twitching in her sleep. Her dreams were filled with the creature and the sight of the two bodies she had seen in the past two weeks. Hazel walked up so that she could wake her when she stopped confused as she watched Lily toss and turn. Lily sat bolt upright with a gasp for air that made hazel's hand automatically go for her knives but stopped midway. Lily was breathing hard trembling from head to toe. She curled up her legs and placed her head in her hands and Hazel listened as she took deep breaths to calm herself down. Hazel waited another minute and then stormed in. Lily in a reflex action that had been drilled into her the past two weeks had her knives out and in her hands before she realized she was staring into the eyes of Hazel.

"Not bad rookie." Lily only nodded and placed them back up. "Pack up we're leaving in an hour!" She turned to go but Lily's voice stopped her.

"What's up? We don't usually leave the site this early." Lily was already getting up and stuffing some of the stuff in her pack and pulling out her outfit for the day.

"Lady farther up north claims that she keeps seeing big ugly creatures in the woods a little ways from her house. Since it's the woods where others have been attacked we have to go check it out, and our team got volunteered for it. Now hurry up or you won't have time to eat." And without another word Hazel walked out and Lily rolled her eyes turning towards Harry and smiled at the bird.

"She's as cheerful as ever." She mumbled under her breath just in case she was still in hearing distance. Harry hooted in agreement and Ella chortled under her breathe the sound she makes when she agrees. Lily got dressed, made sure that the knives were attached, and then finished packing up with a wave of her wand. She exited the tent with her bag and Ella and Harry draped on her shoulders.

She sat down next to Gerald and Erik who were sitting at a fire pit. Alex was over talking to some of the other people in charge and Hazel was no where to be seen. Gerald passed her their usual breakfast when they were about to go on the go. It was a piece of bread with melted cheese, sausage and bits of bacon cooked to perfection in her opinion. She took a bite to eat and smiled a satisfied smile that made them grin in response.

"You know you're one of the only people in the area that has no problem eating that over and over. Me I get sick of it after a while." Gerald said smiling.

"I can if I have to, but even I prefer variety." Erik said grinning.

"There are so many comebacks I could say that, but this morning I'm not going to say any of them and be nice." Lily said simply making the two of them snort.

Alex and Hazel both came over at the same time, though from two different directions. Alex looked at them and smiled a tired smile. "Well finish up we have to get moving. Here's the action plan we want to get in there, try and search that entire part of the forest today. We'll spend the night, and then depending on if we find anything of interest we'll either come back here, or may stay there."

The others nodded, and then made their way to the safe zone where they would transport to the clearing behind the woman's house. They waved good bye to the other members of the organization who were actually awake since they had the day shift and the night shift in a way. Once they reached the zone they spread out a little and Lily waited suppressing a grimace as she waited for the world to shatter, and in a few seconds shatter it did. She blinked several times when they finally came out of the whirlwind of their transportation and immediately looked around.

"Alright teams, Hazel I want you to take Lily and head to the north, I'll take the east, Erik you get the west, and Gerald you take south." Alex said and placed his pack on the ground at his feet. "I'll put a protection circle so we can leave our stuff here."

Lily placed her pack there and took a sidelong glance at Hazel who looked sullen at having the rookie with her. While they let her go by herself on occasion they still wanted to partner her up most of the time. Alex had assured her that it was more so she could read each persons attitude and maybe get a sense of how they will react. Lily never said anything aloud but she was probably just as thrilled at going with Hazel as Hazel was at having her tag along. Alex knew there was tension between the two of them so he only put them together when absolutely necessary, but at times it was necessary like now.

Lily followed Hazel as they all split up and decided that she wasn't going to even try and make conversation like she had a few times before this. It was probably best if they didn't anyways. Lily was once again wearing her normal clothes, a flippy mini like skirt a shirt and combat boots. Easy to run in and comfortable though it did get a little nippy sometimes.

She wasn't sure how long they were out there looking for clues but she knew it was at least a few hours because her stomach was beginning to talk to her and it was getting harder and harder to ignore it. They were about to head back to the clearing when Lily thought of an idea that she hadn't thought of. I mean seriously they were supposed to look for something so small in such a big area; they probably missed it if something was out there. Lily sent out a small wave of her wandless magic, sensing for anything that didn't feel right when she felt a patch that felt like fire and stopped surprised. It was close by and the closer they walked to the clearing the closer they got. Finally Lily stopped and looked in the direction. It took a moment for Hazel to realize that she had stopped.

"What do you think you're doing rookie?" She asked in a slightly annoyed voice, slightly tired voice.

"I thought I saw something." Lily said quietly then without waiting for Hazel to make one of her snappy comebacks to show once again that she didn't care all that much for Lily she walked towards the fire place. When she reached it what she found was a fairly good size of the green ooze and Lily turned to see that Hazel hadn't followed her and she sighed mentally.

"Hazel you might want to look at this." She called.

She heard Hazel begin to mutter under her breathe but she came up and stopped when she saw what Lily was staring at it. She knelt down to get a better look and grimaced since she knew what it was, she swore under her breath and then stood up and marked the spot with a flare that would send the others coming.

"We might as well sit here; it'll take them a little time to get here. This also means that lunch will probably be pushed later."

And it did take a while for them to get there, though they did come as fast as they could. When they found them Lily and Hazel had been sitting there in silence the whole time interrupted occasionally when both of their stomachs growled. Alex stepped past them kneeling looking at the bright patch of green and sighed a defeated sigh. With a nod to Erik, Erik and Gerald sighed and then stepped forward grabbed small packs and began to take the samples they took at every site, and a few other things around the area. Finally Alex straightened up and looked at the others who were waiting for him to tell them what they were going to be doing.

"Well its past time for lunch so we'll have that and then do a more in depth search. Come on let's go back to where we left the packs."

They ate lunch quickly and then split back into the groups they had been assigned to and continued to search using some of the equipment scientists had been developing after examining some of the things they had collected at the sites. But all too soon the sun was going down and it was time to head to the protection circle and get some good nights sleep.

Alex had set up their protection circle out in an open field a good distance from the house in which the lady was said to have called from, but close enough to see it. Alex hadn't been able to find any other traces of the creatures, but Gerald had and Erik noticed a lot more snapped branches in select areas but had no definite proof since he couldn't find any goop that belonged to the creature. It was just after the sun had set and they had made a fire and were roasting up some food since they liked to use as little magic as possible when Lily began to feel uneasy. It was something in the air and she couldn't describe it.

She wasn't the only one to notice it though Hazel seemed to be even more on edge and she kept glancing around. It was then that Hazel began to stare at the house in the distance and a look of extreme concentration on her face. Lily looked over there too, and though something looked odd about the house for sure nothing really just shouted at her like it seemed to be for hazel.

"Alex, didn't you say that the lady that called called from this house?" She said quietly still looking at the house and from the tone of her voice she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear his answer.

"Yes, why?" he said suddenly his tone matched hers completely.

"Because that house, doesn't look like it's been lived in for years!" She said and she stood up and the others turned and stared at the house, which no one had been paying attention to much attention to until then. That's when Lily realized what had been bothering her. She looked up at hazel who seeing her head turned looked at her in return.

"Do you guys hear any animals?" She asked quietly, her voice hushed in the sudden environment.

After a seconds silence Hazel answered. "There are no animals."

"Shit!" Gerald said and leapt to his feet everyone else a second behind him and in a second everyone had their knives in their hands. "It's a trap!"

They were still inside their protective circle but they had traveled a small distance from where their safe spot to transport was back, and now that they knew it was a trap none of them were looking forward to stepping out of their circle.

"So what exactly are we going to do?" Lily asked quietly since they couldn't very well stand here and do nothing.

"I'm not sure, we have no way of knowing how many of those creatures are out there, if we can make it to our safe spot and more importantly if this protective circle can actually keep them out. We've never had a run in with them before so we don't have any idea how to proceed." Alex replied to her quietly. All of them were as still as stones looking out into the dark forest around them looking for any sign of movement.

"We could split up." Erik said quietly, "head to the safe spot from two different directions. I don't know if that would be safer than not."

"That's a risky gamble." Gerald said. "I mean if there's only one creature out there it might work, but if there's more than one that will only make us easier to pick off."

But no one could come up with anything else, and they weren't sure if they wanted to spend the night not knowing there was something out there waiting to rip them up from the inside possibly. Alex looked over at Lily a silent question in his eyes. Lily got the message and spilled her magic out waiting for something that didn't feel right. There it was a patch that was fire, fire and ice at the same time. It almost made her shudder. She marked it in her mind and swept out her magic over a larger area but found no others. Slowly as if scratching an itch she reached up and tugged once on her earlobe, and Alex gave a slight nod of his head to say he got the message.

Finally after a few more moments of tense silence he spoke up. "It looks like we're going to have go with the suggestion we split up and hope that there's only one. It's our best chance of getting to the safe point."

"How are we going to do it?" Erik asked still glancing about the forests though he saw nothing.

"Hazel do you think you can-?"

"Yeah, the rookie and I can make it." She said finishing the question as if she already knew it. She looked at Lily who nodded her head. As much as they didn't like each other, Lily had to admit she would want Hazel on her side of a fight.

"Harry, Ella go!" Lily said quietly and after a small hoot and chirp they flew silently off. They decided to leave their packs in the protective circle, come back later with reinforcements to take care of the creature and get them then.

"Hazel, Lily, take a path that takes left, we'll take right, meet at the safe spot, whoever gets there first make a protective charm and fast. Signal if there's trouble!" He said and then with a nod of their heads turned and glanced at Erik and Gerald who nodded their heads as well.

"GO!"

Within seconds the shield was down and they were off. Hazel chose the path and started a fast pace but Lily kept the pace fairly easily though she had to admit every single part of her was alive and aware just waiting for that thing to pop out and eat them. She wasn't sure how long they had been running when a scream, one of pain, filled the air and stopped them cold in their path.

"Erik?" Lily said breathlessly.

"Or Gerald!" Hazel said in an equal out of breath sound.

They both looked in the direction it came from. Lily looked back at Hazel and smiled a small smile. "Screw the orders?" She asked and for the first time Hazel smiled at her.

"You bet your ass we are!" She said and without another word the tore off after the yells direction. They had been running for a small distance when Hazel tripped over something probably a root and fell. Lily stopped short and began to run back.

"Hazel!"

"NO! You keep going and help them; I'll make my way there." She said as she stood up and winced visibly as she put pressure on her left foot. Lily hesitated unsure but Hazel glared her trademark glare. "Do it now Rookie!! That's an order!!"

After another seconds hesitation she nodded and was off, leaving Hazel to make her way slowly. Lily ran ahead her magic spilling out of her, which is how she learned that Erik was running for his life from the creature that was hot on his trail and there wasn't a sign of the others anywhere.

'Erik left NOW!' Lily sent this thought out at once, and it came to Erik, he looked shocked but there was such a presence and command in the voice that without a moment's thought he made a sharp left and heard a crash as the creature flew into a tree that he had been next to not a moment before.

'Keep going straight for the moment.' Lily said feeling the shape of the forest around her and trying to find an ideal place to help him. She found her a spot and hid behind a tree. 'Turn Right NOW!'

Erik did so again, hearing another crash behind him; he could not remember the last time he had felt so terrified. There seemed to be nothing but fear driving him, he couldn't feel or hear anything but the creature behind him or the voice of Lily guiding him.

Lily meanwhile put a small light above her head a little and to the side. 'Erik, find the light in the tree up ahead, go straight to it and don't stop!'

Erik sped up and heard the creature behind him do the same He looked at nothing but that light. He passed it and kept going. The moment Lily saw him pass she threw out her hands her daggers pointing straight out through the passage that Erik had just run through and the same passage that the creature now ran through. She knew she hit him, because she could feel the bones of the creature smash and her own arm give a terrible yank at the force of the creature when he ran straight into her daggers. But that wasn't the only reason, because as the blades pierced its skin its blood sprayed out, and all over her arms. She screamed and vaguely smelled the smell of burning flesh, only knowing in the back of her mind that it was her own skin that was being cooked. But she knew the creature was still alive, so with great effort, and ignoring of pain she wrenched out one of the daggers with a strangled sound and brought it swinging down straight on the top of the head and with a last shudder the thing was dead.

Lily stumbled back blinded by pain, she hit a tree, she could tell it was a tree because of the way it felt and slid down, thinking of nothing else but the fire that was her hands. Erik several feet away slowed down and hearing the screams slowly made his way back. He could smell the burning flesh several feet before he could see the creature. He saw the creature first, lying between the tree he had just a minute or two ago ducked through. Both of Lily's daggers were still inside of it and it was oozing its green slime all over the place.

"Lily?" He croaked out, surprised at how hoarse his voice sounded. He looked around and hearing a small sound turned and saw Lily his eyes widening. "Oh God!" He fumbled and took out his wand and shot out flares for the others. He came closer and hovered not knowing what else to do. Both of Lily's hands up to near her elbows were covered in green ooze and clearly burning away. There were several spots on her skirt and shirt that had holes leaving red marks on her skin though these weren't burning her skin. Her shoes were surprisingly untouched.

"Lily can you hear me." She was pale and white shaking, and making noises as if she could barely breathe. "I don't know what to do Lily."

There was a crash and he turned to see Gerald come limping into their area followed by Alex, both sporting burn wounds as well. "Alex help!"

Alex made his way quickly over and stopped just short of Lily looking shocked. Gerald was looking at the corpse of the creature with the same look on his face. Alex leaned down and used both hands to grip Lily face. "Lily can you hear me, make a sound or a sign if you can."

She was starting to go into shock and he knew that, there were sounds of more breaking branches and Hazel came in limping much like Gerald was. She saw the creature and then looked past the two of them and saw Lily.

"What happened?" She seemed well shocked like the others.

"I don't know! We need to get her to the safety zone now, she's going into shock and there could be a chance she's not going to make it."

Alex hoisted Lily up, ignoring the small whimper of pain she made and to everyone's surprise turned to them. "Get back to camp as quickly as possible I'm taking her ahead. I'll have reinforcements out here quicker than you would think possible." And with that he was jogging away with Lily in his arms, leaving the three of them to make a slower pace to the safety zone.

* * *

A/N- Okay I have no reason what so ever for taking this long to update. But I finally did and got the chapter up and ready for you guys to read. AS I was writing this I realized, Lily sure does get hurt a lot, and then I figured, well with the kind of life she's been living it's really no surprise so I hope you guys don't mind that fact. I'm sorry for taking so long to get this chapter and leaving it off at a cliffhanger, but I figured that was the best place to stop it so please forgive me. I want to say thanx to all of my reviewers.

**-Keyga1-  
-Xfrozensorcerer-  
-Sam's Firefly-  
-Firewalker32-  
-lilyre-  
-GodricsPhoenix-  
-Baby seal-**

Again thanx so much for reading, I'll try to be better at my updating but no guarantees.  
Maddie.


	26. fighter

_-The Writer.-_

Disclaimer- anyone you recognize is J.K. Rowling's I do not own them. Everything you don't recognize is mine including the plot.

* * *

-Chapter Twenty Six-

James and the others were sitting at supper one evening when it happened. They were laughing hard at Sirius who had managed to be the usual idiot that he was, when someone entered through the main doors. Naturally this wasn't usually done during supper as it was the best meal of the day so when everyone looked up to see who it was a very different sight that greeted everyone. While they had been expecting a student, who actually came through was a young man in his twenties, in fact Sam and Meg commented later on, after all the whispered rumors were over, that he had reminded them of the marauders in appearance. But it was not his age that made the entire hall hush in an unexpected silence it was the fact that he was covered in blood, he had two knives upon his back in easy reach that were showing recent use and one of he sleeves has some green goop on it that not only was smoldering but clearly burning the flesh from him. He didn't seem to notice this though, or the fact that his entrance had caused something of a stir. Instead his eyes focused on Dumbledore and he almost ran to where he was.

Dumbledore rose before the man had even reached him and everyone could see he knew who it was he met him halfway and they had a whispered conversation, and despite the straining of ears from both the students and the professors no one could hear exactly what was being said. But Dumbledore head snapped up alarm showing clearly on his face before he nodded turned and beckoned professor McGonagall over to where they were standing. She was looking very confused but as Dumbledore quietly spoke to her she raised her hands to her mouth in silent horror then slowly nodded. She returned to her seat and Dumbledore and the unknown young man rushed off to a side entrance.

As soon as they were gone the hall burst into excited whispers. Already the students were coming up with their own ideas on what had happened or who it could have been. Remus though had an intense look on his face as if he was thinking very hard.

"Remus what's wrong?" Sam asked gently placing her hand on his arm.

He looked around and they could tell he was battling with himself on whether he should tell them what he was thinking or not. "I can't be sure, but I'm pretty sure that I've seen that green stuff that was dripping off that guys arm and burning him."

"Where on earth could you have seen something like that?" Meg asked bewildered sounding. But James was suddenly seeing where this was leading and he felt like a stone had just been dropped in his stomach.

"Lily had a model of a creature that's he thought had been doing all those killings. And in the model it had been dripping slime like that that was on that guys arm." He said quietly and seeing the faces of dawning horror on their faces he quickly added. "But again I'm not sure." Hoping that that would pacify them but all of them knew deep down that something had happened.

* * *

Dumbledore and Erik arrived at the hospital not even a minute after they had disappeared through the door and before even the best of the rumors could be started. He walked quickly in the direction that Erik motioned and rounded a corner only to be greeted with the site of Alex, Hazel and Gerald all outside the door that more than likely led to the room Lily was staying in. Alex was pacing and Hazel and Gerald where both sitting there looking almost stunned. Alex turned when he heard the sound of approaching footsteps and when he saw Dumbledore his expression lightened somewhat.

"Dumbledore! Thank God you're here!" He said and then beckoned him inside the room before anyone else could say anything.

"How is she Alex?" He asked in a serious voice as he glanced down at the unconscious figure of Lily. They were whispering in the off chance that's she could have been awakened.

"Not so good, he arms are completely shredded by the toxin that the creature gives off. It's eaten entirely through her skin and seems to be poisoning here blood system. The doctors don't know if she's going to make it or not." He replied just as quietly.

"Ah she will make it Alex, I am sure of that." Dumbledore said softly before going and sitting next to her bed. "She has too much to live for and she is not one that back down from challenges such as this. No she will fight and I dare say she will win. I'm not sure if you've had time to witness this but she is an incredibly stubborn person." Dumbledore said with a chuckle.

"I certainly hope you're right Dumbledore. We owe her a life." At Dumbledore's inquiring gaze Alex proceeded to tell everything that had happened in the past two weeks. Dumbledore listened silently and did not say anything, letting the tale be told as it should be. Then silently nodded his head as the story came to a close.

"Yes Lily is good at saving those around her however sometimes she is not so good at realizing her own limitations. You should remember that Alex, keep an eye on her as she gets better. She'll try to do things before she is ready."

"We'll make sure she doesn't do anything like that. I personally watch her like a hawk."

"Tell me more of this creature that is doing the hunting!"

So Alex leading the way back into the hallway told him more, and long into the night the entire group talked. Even when the doctor came and examined the other wounds they had all sustained as well, no one would leave the hallway outside of the room Lily had been placed in. Hazel was more silent than she usually was, and eventually they all slumped down in an exhausted slumber with only Alex to see Dumbledore off with promises to update him with news of Lily as soon as he has the news himself.

Lily was unconscious for three days, but each day her color began to return slowly, her breathing evened, and by the end of the second day the doctor assured Alex that she would make it, and he happily passed that news on to Dumbledore. Finally, on the third night that Lily was there she slowly opened her eyes, blinking several times. She didn't recognize the place but she knew it had to be a medical place because they all managed to look alike. She stretched and smiled as she sank a little into the bed, she was utterly comfortable. She pushed herself up into a sitting position wincing at the stiffness that she felt. She looked down at her hands and saw them covered from elbows to hands in white gauze, looking around slowly she began to unwind it, knowing that she would probably get into trouble for it later, but they already itched like nothing else. When she got the first one she blinked. Her skin was back, though with was a new pink color, but even through that you could see the faint scars that were like tiny vines running up the length of her arm. She unwrapped her other arm to see the other one was just like the first.

Maybe it was just her imagination as well but there was a ghost of a feeling like burning. She shook her head and pushed the thought from her head, she knew if she thought those kinds of thoughts she would probably cause even more problems. She looked around again trying to get her bearing when she heard the quiet whispers of people trying desperately not to make too much noise. Lily slipped out of the bed with only a swish of the sheets and noticed that sometime during her known period of unconsciousness someone had changed her, and as much as she and Hazel didn't get along she was kind of hoping it was her, the thought of a random stranger and a guy no less made her shudder slightly. She wasn't a prude or anything but she still didn't like the thought she reached the door with much shuffling, it seemed like her muscles didn't want to cooperate and she opened it slightly to see the entire gang was there, looking exhausted and a little worse for wear but awake enough to realize that someone had opened the door.

The all glanced over and at the sight of the bright green eyes and red hair they jumped up with exclamations of surprise and happiness. Erik reached her first pushing the door opening and grabbing her, lifting her up into a huge hug. Just as soon as he had done so he dropped her and looked terrified.

"All you alright, I didn't hurt you did I?"

Lily laughed. "I'm all right, really!"

Gerald pushed Erik aside and picked Lily up giving her just as big a hug followed closely by Alex. As Alex stepped away Hazel came up and surprised everyone when she too gave Lily a hug.

When she pulled back Lily was still looking at her in surprise, noting that her eyes were a little misty. "I'm really glad you didn't die."

Lily couldn't help but laugh. "That makes two of us." And soon everyone was laughing, a feeling of relief making everything funnier that it really was.

After they were all finished laughing, wiping away the tears that had streamed out Lily was ushered over to her bed since she was still looking pale and was swaying a bit she didn't protest and sat down with a satisfied sigh.

"So what happened? I don't really remember anything except stabbing the beast."

"Stab it you did, you killed that sucker." Gerald said with a proud smile that Lily returned.

"A group came to take it to examine, Alex got you to the hospital as fast as he could and the rest of us followed when we were able to. You've been out for almost four days." Erik added.

"Four days?"

"You were pretty far off, the doctor wasn't sure you would make it." Hazel said quietly.

"Ah, but Dumbledore believed you would." Alex smiled.

"Dumbledore was here?"

"Yes we've been sending him reports on how you're doing; he came just as soon as he heard."

"I didn't mean to worry any of you."

"Yeah right rookie you like the attention." Hazel rolled her eyes but there was lightness in her eyes that made Lily know she was joking.

"Well maybe just a little." Lily played along.

"What you really need now is rest, we'll have the doctor come and check on you and I'll let Dumbledore know that you're up and around."

"Thank you Alex."

Lily slid under her covers and leaned back smiling brightly as they began to leave the room. Hazel stopped at the door then said something quietly to Alex before turning around and coming to sit next to her.

She was silent for a moment then she seemed to gather her courage and looked Lily in the eye. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For telling you to go, you wouldn't have gotten hurt if I hadn't done that."

"Erik might not have made it if I hadn't."

"I know, and I'm so grateful that you were there to save him, we've known each other since we were kids, but you could have died too…you almost died."

Lily smiled softly. "Hazel, I knew exactly what I was getting myself into when I told professor Dumbledore I wanted to help find these creatures. I knew there was a chance that something like this could happen, or maybe even worse that I wouldn't come back from it all. I accepted that though, I know its still a possibility but I don't regret it, not one bit and the way I'm feeling right now I don't think I ever will."

Hazel smiled slightly. "I was wrong about you, I thought you would slow us down, get us killed, and be a spy. Instead you saved us."

"Not by myself."

"Still, I'm sorry and I'll stop acting like such a bitch."

"You a bitch, never." Lily said in mock disbelief making Hazel laugh.

Hazel got up and made her way the door stopping one more time. "You get better Lily, because when you do I plan on teaching you a whole bunch of cool tricks."

"Now that I can really look forward to." And with a final nod Hazel walked out and a minute later the doctor walked in.

Lily ended up sleeping for another fourteen hours and when she woke the next time she fest much better, able to walk around mostly normal. Hazel helped her get dressed when she had a little trouble then took her for a small walk close to the small pond. She sat Lily down on a large rock next to the water, one that reminded Lily of the one next to the lake at school, but she tried not to dwell too much on that. She had meant what she said to Hazel, she knew there was a very high probability that she wouldn't make it back alive, not if Tom had anything to do with that. Thinking about the things she would miss and might never see again made her feel a deep sadness that she didn't want to think on. Unconsciously she had begun to rub her hands tracing the near invisible scars. Hazel watched her for a moment before speaking up.

"Do they hurt?"

"Not too bad, sort of like a tingle, a faint feeling of burning. Not really uncomfortable more annoying."

"Can't you heal them with your wandless magic?" Lily froze and glanced at her, trying to figure out what to say when Hazel burst out laughing and after a moment Lily couldn't help but smile.  
"You should see your face."

"Sorry, I just didn't think I had told anyone but Alex."

"You didn't but only wandless people can talk without being close, when Erik told us it wasn't that hard to figure out."

"Damn, I didn't even think of that." Lily sighed. "I've already tried healing it with wandless magic; it doesn't work either, looks like I'll be stuck with them. I suppose it could be worse."

"You're pretty tough Lily."

"Coming from you, that's a pretty high compliment."

"And I mean it."

"So what happens next? What are we going to do? No ones told me, they just say I need rest and not to think about it."

"We'll stay here for another week. No arguments!" she added when Lily opened her mouth to object. "Then we'll go back to base see what the scientists figured out and see what we can do next."

"Isn't a week a little long."

"No it isn't rookie!" Hazel glared. "You will stay in this hospital or I'll make you stay and you'll regret that!"

Lily laughed. "Now that's the Hazel I know."

Hazel rolled her eyes. "You have to realize Lily you really were close to dying. I know you think it won't take long but you're body will welcome the extra time. Take it easy; don't do anything too stressful or straining. Promise!"

Lily looked sober, she knew she had almost died but once again it was one of those things she didn't really want to think about. "Okay, I promise."

"Good, now let's go back inside I promised I wouldn't keep you out here too long."

Hazel helped her get up, Lily only wincing slightly and then the two of the walked indoors and back to Lily's room. Once she was settled in Hazel stepped away and grinned.

"Anything else I can get you?"

"Paper and maybe something to write with."

"Okay, just remember, you still can't tell them specifics."

"I know. I won't."

"Alright I'll be right back."

Hazel came back with not only some parchment and a quill but also something she could use to write on. Lily thanked her and set out to write a long delayed letter to the others. She wasn't sure what to say, whether to mention she was hurt or just ignore it. She decided after several minutes of reflection that it would be best if she didn't mention it. They would only worry and wish there was something they could do. They would want to know if it was serious and how it happened. Too many questions asked that she would rather not answer. She sighed, trimmed her quill and set about writing. She finished up some time later, after double checking what she wrote to make sure she hadn't given anything away, and looked up to see it was almost time for dinner. She pushed her things away and with her wandless magic began to move things around in her room. Each night Erik, Gerald, Alex and Hazel would come with her lunch and their own and eat with her, keep her company.

Sure enough no sooner had she finished moving things around when there was knock on the door and Hazel popper her head in. She was always the first to look in case Lily wasn't decent. Lily smiled and Hazel opened the door wider and all of them made their way to their usual seats. Alex shared what news he had received, the past couple of days he had gone to the base a few times to give out some information and to get any updates but he spent most of him time here at the hospital. Gerald and Erik talked about their girlfriends and the guy upstairs they had met who had quite a few funny stories and pranks to share to the two young men. Hazel spent most of her time with Lily so she didn't really have anything new to share, although unknown to the guys Lily had badgered Hazel into going ahead and showing her some of those tricks she had mentioned. Alex would not approve if he knew so they always did when they were pretty sure they wouldn't be caught out. Lily had always had a respect for Hazel, knowing her to be somewhat kick ass, but after learning a few of the many tricks she knew she had an even fiercer respect and knew that in a head on battle she wasn't so sure she would come out the winner, she would even consider coming out on a draw pretty good.

Lily passed along her letter later to Alex, and with her permission he went ahead and read it to double check that there was nothing in there that he would rather not be. He cleared it with a satisfied nod and promised he would get it out either tonight or tomorrow for sure. Instead of leaving with the others though he came and sat down next to her bed and smiled down at her, like an affectionate dad, or uncle.

"How are you doing Lily?"

"Not too bad, I've been worse but then I've been better to."

"I wanted to ask you something and I want you to really think about your answer before telling me." Lily noted the seriousness he was using and sobered, nodding her head. "Are you sure you want to continue being a part of the hunt, you almost died and though you play it down that's still something incredibly serious. I won't lie to you or belittle your intelligence by saying that you'll definitely make it back home, because there is a good chance you won't. We're getting closer to our goal and it's also becoming more dangerous. No one will think less of you if you decide to go home, to be safe."

He finished up and glanced at Lily who smiled softly and Alex already knew her answer. "Thank you for telling me the truth, but I know exactly what I'm getting in to, I knew long before you started hunting the creatures. This isn't my first near death experience, not even my second sadly, and I would hate die but I would hate to do nothing more. Dying is a scary though, but there are things that are even scarier than that. If I can do some good, if I can save lives, I think a life would be worth it. You say no one would think less of me if I chose to go home, but I would think less of me. You guys are like my family, I protect my family."

"I had a feeling you would say this, there's going to be a little change then, you have to start thinking of you own life as much as you think of ours. Dumbledore once told me that you are great at saving people and friends, not so much your own life, not so good and knowing your own limitations and that's going to have to change. Your life is just as important as ours."

Lily smiled sheepishly. "I know, I will try."

"Good, now you get some rest, next week if you're better we'll go to base and take the next step."

"Sounds good."

Alex stood up, leaned down and kissed her gently on her forehead then headed out leaving Lily with a warm feeling of love. She went to the bathroom, taking a quick shower then turned out the lights and fell asleep.

* * *

A few days later, just as James, Remus, Sirius, Meg and Sam were eating breakfast a large owl swooped down and dropped a fairly thick letter and they all smiled at the sight of Lily's handwriting. Sam was the first to grab it and she tore it open revealing two sheets of parchment just full of news.

"Read it aloud." Remus suggested.

**_Dear everybody,_**

**_ I hope everyone is doing well, I think of you a lot especially when things get a little glum around here. Sorry it's taken me so long to write, been a bit busy lately and I got a little under the weather but am feeling much better now. Made a new friend, though she's a little crabby every once in a while. I'm learning all kinds of tricks and moves that I fell kind of bad ass, and yes that really was me swearing, you can blame the crowd I hang out with, they've corrupted me. Life seems like a pattern that I do over and over but I suppose there are worse things that could be said. I don't think I'm any closer to being home, in fact I'm not sure when I will get there, but I feel like I'm doing something incredible with my life right now, I hope you understand that, and have forgiven me by now._**

**_ Judging from the tone in some of the notes in the last letter from you all I take it you found out about me and James so let me just say one thing! You blame him and I'll use some of my new tricks on you when I get back. Relationships are complicated and it's never just the one persons fault when they fall apart, none of us are exactly the easiest of people to be around all the time and you should keep that in mind before judging to harshly. We all have breaking points, James found his and a big part of that was my fault. So remember, everything's good even if life doesn't always seem that way. _**

**_ Not much time till my supper comes so I'll finish up the letter, write to me, let me know what pranks you guys have been up to, give me a slice of normal because I could really use it about now. I'll write as soon as I get around too it, but then you know me I'm not always the best at doing it in a timely manner._**

**_ Lily_**

**_ P.S. just in case, I love you all!_**

James who had been looking a little embarrassed glanced over at the others who all looked just as shell shocked as him.

"What did she mean, just in case?" Meg said quietly.

"You don't think—" Sirius began but couldn't finish the thought that everyone was thinking.

She said she had been under the weather, do you really think that she was the one that got hurt when that guy came to get Dumbledore?" Sam asked just as quietly as Meg.

Remus was quiet before he spoke up. "I think they're getting close to the end of it, of course she can't tell us, but just in case she wants us to know."

Sam leaned into Remus, all their faces sober.

"I don't like this! I don't like the fact that she's out there doing god knows what and we have no way of knowing if she's okay." Meg burst out suddenly.

No one knew just what to say to that until James spoke up for the first time. "Lily has always put us first, protecting us even when it caused her pain. This is the first thing she's wanted to do for her, not just for us. We don't have to like it, but we have to support her in any way we can."

Remus glanced over and smiled. "He's right, we can't do much but we can write more to her, it doesn't even have to be long maybe just a joke or something else."

"Yeah like a not a day or something." Meg said.

"I've got an entire encyclopedia of jokes; I can send her one a day." Sirius grinned, liking the idea of it all.

Meg glanced over at James. "I'm sorry; we have been a little harsh on you lately."

"You're her friend I get it."

"Still Lily is the kind of person who doesn't like to blame people, and I can tell you still love her. But even I was getting frustrated with the fact she wouldn't tell us everything."

"Thanks Meg."

"Well her being out there, doing all this stuff, makes you reevaluate what's important."

Just then James saw Dumbledore enter and begin to make his way to the professor's tables. "I'll be right back." James said and quickly made his way to Dumbledore hoping to catch him before he made it to the table.

"Professor!" he called when he got close enough.

Dumbledore turned and smiled his smile. "Mr. Potter what can I do for you."

James took a deep breath and just jumped in before he could really consider what he was doing. "Sir, Lily was hurt about a week ago wasn't she?"

Dumbledore paused and looked considerately at James. "What made you jump to that conclusion?"

"We know what that green stuff is that was on that guy who came to find you, and we know Lily went to go hunt the things that were causing the killings."

"How do you know that's where the green saliva comes from?"

"Lily showed a picture of the thing she thought did this to Remus before she left."

"Ah, I see. Well I do not under any circumstances want this spread around the school, but yes she was injured about a week ago."

"It was pretty serious wasn't it?"

"It was, but she seems to have made a full recovery."

"Of course she's too stubborn to go down without at fight."

"Indeed Mr. Potter."  
"Thank you professor for telling me the truth."

Dumbledore nodded and James headed back to the table, where Sirius, Remus, Meg and Sam were all looking at him expectantly. "She was hurt." He told them quietly as he sat down.

"She didn't want to worry us." Sam shook her head.

The others smiled a fond smile and then got back to eating, thinking on all the things they were going to write to Lily.

* * *

Lily recovered at a steady pace, able to do more and more until she was almost at full strength. Hazel seemed to have gotten over most of her guilt and was acting as sarcastically as she usually did, but there wasn't as much malice in her words as there used to have been. She and Lily, now that they were on the same page, got along better than most would have thought. Alex watched her closely, reminding Lily of a bird of prey except she was fairly certain he wasn't going to come swooping down at her in punishment. Gerald and Erik kept her entertained with stories that would make most people blush but only made Lily laugh harder. Finally a week and half after Lily had woken up she was officially discharged from the hospital and after assuring everyone that she was feeling much better they began to head to a local safe spot and make it back to base to start working again.

Lily found her way to traveling still hadn't improved and she looked a little green when they arrived in base but she shook off assistance, instead squaring her shoulders and insisting again that she was just fine. Before they could head anywhere there were two loud screeches and Lily glanced up to see Harry and Ella making their way to her. Animals were prohibited in the hospital so she hadn't seen the two of them since the day of her attack. It looked like there was a mixture of anger and worry in their antics as they circled her head several times before landing on their usual perches going between pecking at her in irritation and preening her hair in worry. She smiled in happiness and closed her eyes because for just a moment she felt a wave of peace settle over her.

All too soon the feeling passed and she opened her eyes and smiled at Alex who was watching her to make sure she was okay. Just then a messenger came running from where the main tents were and stopped respectfully before Alex.

"Sir the commander would like to see you and Lily as soon as possible."

Alex glanced at Lily then nodded. "Tell him we'll be right there."

"Yes sir." And then he was off running back to the tents.

"Well might as well get this over with come one Lily, you guys go and get the tents set up, hopefully we won't be heading straight out."

The other three nodded and headed to the empty space they usually set up at while Lily and Alex made their way up the head tents. Alex knocked first and a voice beckoned them to enter he held the flap open for Lily who went in with only a little hesitation. She and Alex were beckoned closer, to sit in two chairs and they sat down, both wondering what exactly this could be about.

"We're glad to see you doing better Ms. Evans."

"Thank you sir."

"We thought it only right that since you were able to get us a specimen that you should hear what we found out about it."

"Thank you sir." Alex spoke this time.

The next several minutes were so technical that Lily didn't really follow all that much of it. Something about its habits, what it eats nothing she figured she could use all that much. She did pay attention though there at the end.

"Also with a simple origin spell we were able to locate several elements and chemicals that were present when it was created. Using that we were also able to narrow it down to about seven places where the thing could have been created."

"You think they're still being held there?" Lily asked when there was a lull in the conversation.

"We think so, there a lot more recent traces as well."

"So what was the other reason you wanted to see us?" Alex asked casually and the commander laughed.

"You don't miss much; all right I want your team to take on an assignment for me."

"You don't expect us to go in there alone do you?"

"Heaven's no! No we were hoping that you and your team would act as the scouts, looking in to all the locations see if you find signs of life or activity near any of the places. Your team has the most experience with the beasts so were thought you might be perfect for the job."

Alex glanced over at Lily who looked a little excited that they might actually find the beasts and be able to put an end to all of this. Alex sighed slowly and looked back at the commander. "I'll have to talk to my team, I won't make them do this, and we all have to be in agreement. I can let you know either later today or tomorrow."

"Accepted. I have nothing further to add so you are dismissed."

"Yes Sir." Lily and Alex replied at the same time.

Lily went out first and Alex, both of them making their way to the newly constructed tents where Hazel, Erik and Gerald were sitting out in front of them.

"What did the commander want?" Hazel asked, getting straight to the point

Alex grinned. "He wants to give us a new assignment, but this once I can't make you so, it's going to be something that we all have to agree with." He looked them all in the face one by one trying to make them understand just how important this was.

"The commander would like up to be a scouting party where we will be checking several places that are likely to house the beasts and their masters. It will be dangerous because it we do end up agreeing we'll have the beasts, death eaters and god knows what else to deal with. So think long and hard before you answer."

Hazel was the first to answer after several minutes of silence. "I'm in."

Lily smiled at her and glances at Alex. "Me too."

He nodded at both of them and turned to glance at Gerald and Erik, no doubt they were thinking of their girlfriends they had been dating for a long time now, but they knew that doing this would save a lot of lives so after glancing at each other they looked at Alex and answered in unison.

"We're in."

Alex smiled softly. "Then we'll probably be leaving in the next day or two."

He paused and a fierce look swept across his face.

"Let's end this!"

* * *

A.N.- wow over three years since I last posted a story for a moment I didn't think I would come back but Lily's voice started pestering me, demanding I write this chapter even though it had been so long ago. In addition to her I still get several messages and reviews on my stories it always makes me smile when I get that email. It's been so long since I've done this that I don't even know which specific reviewers to thank so I'll just thank you all, and thank the ones who will review this because they still haven't given up on this story. You are a group of amazing people.

Maddie.


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